


Serendipity

by thisisnotourlasthunt



Series: Erlebnisse [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: A lot - Freeform, Abandonment Issues, Ableist Language, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Blood and Injury, Broken Bones, Child Abuse, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Foster Care, Future Fic, Hospitals, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Kid Fic, LEGAL THINGS, M/M, Mentions of Lola Nathan and Drake, Multi, Neil Josten & Andrew Minyard Adopt, Neurodivergent Original Character, Not Beta Read, Not too graphic tho, Panic Attacks, Protective Andrew Minyard, Protective Neil Josten, Soft Andrew Minyard, Soft Neil Josten, We Die Like Women, a bit - Freeform, give it a chance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 04:55:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28576359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisisnotourlasthunt/pseuds/thisisnotourlasthunt
Summary: “That’s so cool! Mama used to tell us stories of how she and Papa met because of Exy. She used to take us, when Chris was not home, to the court and tell us stories.”“That’s why you hid there,” Andrew guessed.“Yeah.” She smiled. “I was scared to go there at first but I’m happy I went because you found me and if you didn’t we would still be with Chris.”“You know how’s that called? It’s called a Serendipity.”“Serendipity. I like that word, what does it mean?” inquired Ava.“It means to find something good without looking for it.” Andrew replied for Neil.***Or; Neil finds a small girl on one of his runs and discover that her and her older brother need help, in the process he and Andrew get attached to the kids.
Relationships: Allison Reynolds/Renee Walker (All For The Game), Andrew Minyard & Original Character(s), Andrew Minyard & Renee Walker, Kevin Day & Andrew Minyard, Kevin Day & Neil Josten, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Neil Josten & Andrew Minyard & Original Character(s), Neil Josten & Ichirou Moriyama, Neil Josten & Original Character(s), Neil Josten & Renee Walker, Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, Renee Walker & Stephanie Walker, Renee Walker (All For The Game)/Original Character(s)
Series: Erlebnisse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2125164
Comments: 40
Kudos: 129





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi perks! How are you? I've been writing this story since the beginning of December 2020 and I'm finally posting it! Thanks for giving it a chance, I hope you enjoy it as much as I am enjoying writing this.
> 
> Expect:  
> \- Some spelling mistakes, I have no beta so I edit this myself and my native language is not english.  
> \- A few unrealistic facts; legal, medical, etc.  
> \- According to timeline, this is set seven years after TFC but I am not writing the story with that in mind, so there will be some mistakes.  
> \- I have not read the whole extra content but from what I have read, I prefer to leave it like that and continue on my bubble.  
> \- Punctuation mistakes....many (how the fuck are commas used?)  
> \- Ichirou might be a little OOC tho we won't hear from him till like Chapter 5.
> 
> Some recurring Tws that will be slightly shown but the characters won't talk about it until further chapters yet I feel the need to let you know.  
> \- Abandonment issues  
> \- Age regression in children  
> \- Neurodivergent character (ADHD)  
> \- (The list will grow as I continue writing the story)
> 
> The tags will increase as I continue writing the story, but if I am missing anything or if there is something that triggers you and I didn't warn it before, be sure to let me know, it can even be in a private DM, and I will make sure I tag it anytime I use something like that. Anyways, happy reading!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neil and Andrew had been living together for a few months after three years of being apart in different states because of their teams, and now that they were back together they lived happily just the two of them. That is, until they meet two children that have been obviously hurt. This is their first meeting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are a few warnings for this chapter (this chapter is also the smallest one I've written):  
> Vague References of Nathan and Lola, Implied Child Abuse, Bruises, Cuts.  
> If I'm missing something feel free to let me know in the comments below!
> 
> Also the tags are going to increase as I continue writing the story.

There was something to running as a hobby and not because that’s the only thing that kept him safe and alive was something Neil loved doing, he had passed so many years of his early life dodging and escaping his father’s knives and lola’s hands. Then he had to run for several years with Mary to escape Nathan and his men to save their lives, never able to do anything else than hide, lie, fight and run.

For Mary, running was essential, something that kept them alive, but for Neil running not only meant that. Running became something Neil could do anywhere he and Mary went, something no one could take away from him. The adrenaline rush that came every time his feet touched the ground, as he felt the air hit his skin and enter his lungs only came to him whenever he ran, helped him feel real, grounded,  _ alive.  _

Now that Nathan was dead and his whole organization was gone and Ichirou had let him live freely only asking in return 80% of what he did playing the sport he loved, he could give himself the opportunity to run and once he felt like it, he could return  _ home.  _ And that’s what he did, he ran in the cold evening just because he felt like it.

Since it was January, and the roads were covered with a fine coat of snow, there was no one else in the road as Neil ran, the cold air helped to this too, it wasn’t too cold though, Neil had survived in worse conditions in a much lower temperature before, but that didn’t mean he didn’t grab a coat on his way out.

He normally would run some miles and then head back to his two bedroom apartment but now that he and Andrew were living together again, he took the opportunity to run to the court, a couple of miles away. 

It had taken three rough years, where they were in different teams in different cities only seeing each other a couple of times a year, when their schedules aligned giving them a few vacations, and whenever they played against each other, and with the fact that most of the exy community believed they were having a rivalry going on it made it harder for them to be on the same team, but thankfully the Tornadoes from Denver didn’t care and signed them both, finally giving them the chance to move to Denver together and buy a three bedroom home.

As he made his way to the court, he saw a small figure running through the bleachers before disappearing behind them. He looked around, it was late so he was not surprised to see no one else and so he decided to investigate. Thankfully he always carried his keys with him, but he did wonder how did the small figure enter the closed court.

Walking through the bleachers he could hear soft whimpering coming from below the bleachers, slowly as not to startle whoever was there, he made his way to the bleachers with the torch of his phone on. Right below them, was a small figure of a child crouched down, with their face pressed tightly against their knees, making themselves smaller. 

Slowly he walked further to see what the problem was and as he got closer he realized that the child was a small girl, who looked no older than four years old. She wore a long dirty pink dress and her brunette hair was disheveled and looked as if it had not been properly cared of in a long time.

“Hey,” he called softly to the little girl, figuring she would be afraid if he spoke loudly. He didn’t get a response so he stepped forward and called out again, this time, the girl seemed to hear him as she flinched.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” the girl whimpered softly as she began trembling from fear, still not lifting her face out of her knees, pressing herself closer, shoulders tensed as if preparing herself for someone to hit her.

“Hey, it's okay, you are safe right now.”

Finally, the girl lifted her small head and Neil saw how her cheeks were flushed and tear-stained, her green eyes were wet and puffy though the left one was beginning to bruise, making it small. 

Neil made his way to her slowly and once he was in front of her, he slowly sat down, one of his hands at his side and the other one holding the phone in front of him so she could see his every move.

“Beside your eye, are you hurt anywhere else?” He asked, using the same tone of voice he used with Dan and Matt’s child, not so different from his normal voice but a bit gentler. The girl hesitated before nodding her head and slowly extended her right elbow that had an open wound, her face grimacing at the movement, there was not much blood, but Neil could tell it hurt her. “Ouch, can I clean that for you?”

The girl looked wary for a second as she thought about it and then nodded, Neil told her to wait for him there while he went for the first aid kit. Without thinking it twice, he took off his coat and gave it to the girl, who grabbed it warily, and encouraged her with a small smile to put it around herself.

On his way to the court’s nurse room, he texted Andrew explaining the situation so he wouldn’t worry about Neil and Andrew left him on read, but Neil knew him and because of that, he knew Andrew would be heading to the court as soon as he read the text message. 

Breaking into the infirmary was easy, he had not broken into a room since that day years ago when he broke into Andrew’s dorm, he thought it would be harder, having not done it in a while, yet as soon as he placed the two skinny metal pieces into the lock, his hands moved by muscle memory, making him able to unlock the door in a matter of seconds. This was what everyone meant when they said that something is as easy as riding a bike, he supposed. 

Once he got a hold on the first aid kit, he closed the door and hurried to the benches, hoping the girl had not ran away. He made sure that the girl could hear him as he approached the benches and when he looked down, the girl was still sitting on the floor, curling amongst herself, looking over at the entrance of the space below the bleachers patiently waiting for Neil.

Neil approached the girl and crunched at arm’s level so she wouldn’t feel trapped. She was no longer shedding tears but her breathing was still ragged showing how scared she was.

“Can I touch you?” He asked the girl and she nodded. 

Although he would never touch any distress person, much less child, without a clear verbal consent, the girl seemed like she would not speak so he nodded back and sat closer to the girl, yet she threw herself onto his lap and leaned her head against his shoulder as she extended her arm so he could bandage it. Neil could feel her tremble against him but he didn’t mention it and just healed her elbow as promised, careful not to press too hard as to not hurt her.

As Neil was finishing cleaning the wound -that had bits of dirt that if Neil hadn’t cleaned would probably get infected and thankfully he had had many experiences to know how to clean dirty wounds- Neil heard the sound of footsteps, at first he wondered if it was the girl’s relatives as she quickly curled into Neil and buried her face against his neck in an attempt to hide herself, then there was a quick double tap then three taps on one of the bleachers, his and Andrew’s signal that they were near, and Neil let out a breath of relief. 

“Hey, it’s okay, he’s my friend alright? He won’t hurt you in any way,” Neil tried to reassure the girl, her shoulders untensed a little bit and took away her face that was pressed against his neck to have a look at the opening as Andrew reached it, but didn’t take away her head out of his shoulder.

“Neil?” Andrew called out, loud enough to be heard but not loud enough to scare the girl.

“We’re in here,” he called out as he finished placing a bandage on the girl’s elbow, who as soon as the bandage was set and her arm was free, brought her hand to her mouth and started sucking on her thumb. A cold breeze hit them just then and Neil felt the girl shiver so he covered her closely with the coat.

Andrew, who did not enjoy the cold, appeared through the opening, he was wearing his black mittens and a black coat, and started walking their way with both of his hands on his side where the girl could see them and any movement he tried to make.

“She okay?” Andrew asked, sitting down across from where Neil was sitting.

“Yeah, her eye will probably bruise, not badly though, and had a cut on her elbow which I already cleaned and bandaged.”

Andrew hummed in response before turning his look on the girl. “What’s your name?”

“Ava? Ava?” A voice called out softly before the girl could answer and soon a boy, who looked to be ten years old, wearing old jeans, a scarf and a dirty gray long sleeved shirt,with his brunette hair in the same condition as the girl’s and light brown eyes walked into the opening and stopped in his tracks as he saw them all sitting on the floor.

“Come on Ava, we gotta go,” the boy ushered, looking at the girl, Ava, and not meeting either men’s eyes.

The boy received a quick shake of the head by Ava and buried her head further into Neil. The boy let out an exasperated sigh and slowly made her way to Ava. “Bug, we really have to go, Chris didn’t see when you run away and he’s out cold now, but if he wakes up and we’re not there he will get angry.”

Ava seemed to hesitate for a moment, but in the end she nodded and stood up carefully from Neil’s lap and grabbed her brother’s hand. She seemed to remember the coat was not hers and tried to take it off and hand it to him, but Neil stopped her before she could even take it off.

“Keep it, it's okay, I’m not even cold, plus I’ve got more,” Neil smiled, the girl returned the smile and pulled the coat closer to her.

“Um, thank you for cleaning her arm and keeping her safe,” the boy said, still not looking at neither men in the eye. Neil turned to Andrew, who was already looking at him.

_ They are in danger. _

_ Yeah, but they won’t come with us. _

_ No, they won't. They are too afraid of this Chris guy. _

_ Probably the one who hurts them. _

_ We should give them our contacts, they can come to us or call us if they need help. _

“No worries. I’m Neil and he’s Andrew, if you ever need help, contact us. We will usually be here practicing during the day, but if we aren’t or it’s late, call us to these numbers,” Neil scribbled his and Andrew’s numbers on a piece of paper he had and gave it to the boy, careful as to not touch his skin. “It doesn’t matter if it’s at midnight or at 3 am, we will answer.”

The boy nodded and placed the paper inside his pant pocket. “Thank you.”

“No problem, bye Ava, bye…”

“Eli.” 

Neil nodded. “Bye Eli.”

Andrew and Neil watched them leave and before the children disappeared into the opening, Ava turned and waved with her hand, both men returned the gesture.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After their first encounter, Neil and Andrew wait for the children to call them but there are no news of them until a week later,when Ava appears scared, teared eyes and alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Child abuse, the r word, violence, blood, non-vocality generated by a panic attack 
> 
> Disclaimers: I'm not from the US so if I’m using the 999 incorrectly I’m sorry, I tried my best. Also, there's an address that is taken from a real street, but I changed it just a tiny bit so it wasn’t the actual real street.
> 
> I want to thank everyone for the love you are giving this story, I didn't imagine that people would like it but here we are, thank you so so much <3

A week passed and they had yet to receive information about Ava and Eli, they had not run pass each other in the streets, Neil had not seen them in any of his nightly runs, since that day he decided that he would run to the court everyday and stay for a while in case Ava or Eli appeared, and they had yet to receive a call from them.

Both Neil and Andrew knew better than to assume that the children were fine and that it was a one-time thing, so they waited with patience, yet that didn’t mean they were completely alright.

Every day since the incident Neil felt somewhat guilty, he had let the kids go even though it was obvious they were being abused at home and he didn’t even try to stop them from leaving and come with them to their home. 

Neil knew Andrew felt the same way since he hadn’t commented on Neil’s sulking. They both knew that even if they had tried, the children were far more scared of this Chris dude than to defy him, and even so, why would they go with two men they barely knew.

“I hope they are alright,” Neil blurted out as he and Andrew were getting ready for practice, he got a blank stare as a reply, but Neil had never been affected by Andrew’s stare, and besides, Andrew looked kinda cute when he gave a glare with a toothbrush sticking out of a corner of his mouth. “I mean, I know they are not alright, I know better, but I do hope that the reason they haven’t contacted us is because nothing too serious has happened to them.”

Andrew took the brush out of his mouth and rinsed his mouth, when he was done he hooked his and Neil’s pinkies together, a reassurance and an acknowledgement, though Neil knew he felt the same. 

They finished getting ready and silently, still holding hands and walked to the living room. Once there, Andrew grabbed his and Neil’s coats -it wasn’t a cold day, but they took them just in case, you never know when a sudden temperature drop can happen-, car keys and took both of them outside and locked the house behind him, the only time he took his hand away from Neil’s was to put the coats on and when they had to enter the car, but once they were both seated, he reached for Neil’s hand again. 

The ride from home to the court was comfortable, neither of them said a word and the only noise that filled the car was the low music coming from the radio. Neil stared out the window, they had been living together in Denver for about four month now, and practicing with the Tornadoes ever since. The team was alright, they had a strong defence line even before Andrew got there, the offence line had a few issues but otherwise they were strong and fast.

They made their way to the court, about ten minutes early, and since they still didn’t feel comfortable enough to change in front of the rest of the team, with a few exceptions, they changed into their gear and walked towards the court. Neil began warming up as they waited for the rest of their teammates to arrive whilst Andrew sat on the bleachers reading a book.

Neil was just finishing his stretches when the team started arriving, as soon as their coach pounded on the plexiglass, Neil and Andrew went to the locker room and sat on one of the benches at the further corner where they could watch the whole room.

“I know we are just coming back from the christmas break and it's chilly out there but I must remind you the season starts in April, four months from now, and we have to be prepared for anything and everything coming our way, so I don’t want you all fooling around, now go and give me ten laps!” Coach Lewis ordered.

They started their training with a few drills where they practiced footwork, some of which Neil had already known since his college years, and some new ones. Since Exy was created not so long ago it made it possible for new footwork to be invented so it was always fun to learn new ones every couple of years. 

At about ten am, the team practiced passes, Neil was assigned to be partners with Conan Davis, one of the substitute strikers, and together they had to try and pass Haylee Coello, starting backliner.

Neil liked Haylee, she had been one of the first people he met on the team, she had accepted his boundaries, never pushed him into something. She was also the only one from their teammates that had caught on to the fact that he and Andrew were in a relationship rather than a rivalry. 

Their coach also knew, but it was because after they signed with the tornadoes, Neil had held Andrew’s hand in excitement for finally being able to play on the same team again, to the coach’s favor he had only let an exasperated breath and sent them to their new PR manager telling them both they had to speak with Sam about their relationship.

Even Andrew liked Haylee, as he would listen to her whenever she talked to him, his face bored as always but his head tilted to her whenever she spoke to him. She was one of the few exceptions in the team where they both felt comfortable with.

“Think you can pass through me Josten?” Haylee teased as he neared her.

“I don’t think it, I know.” he said as he passed the ball to Conan and sped past Haylee dodging her when she tried to reach for him. Conan returned the ball with a rebound and once Neil caught it, he sped towards the goal, where Andrew was leaning slightly against his racquet watching him, looking as if he didn’t care but Neil knew Andrew wouldn’t let him score.

Neil tilted the racket, ready to throw the ball at the goal, when he saw a familiar figure dashing through the bleachers through his peripheral vision. Since he had lost his concentration, the ball didn’t even reach the goal, but his mind was not in exy for the first time.

“Can’t even throw a ball to the goal Josten?” Andrew teased, oblivious as to what Neil had seen just a few seconds before. 

Neil turned to Andrew and saw how his bored demeanor dissipated into a concerned one, Andrew was about to say something else when there was a pounding at the plexiglass, everyone on the court stopped practicing and turned to the door, knowing it had been their coach, who looked a bit wary as he opened the door.

“Uh, Minyard and Josten there’s someone looking for you both.” Coach Lewis hesitated. Andrew and Neil looked at each other for a second and hurried to get out of court, not minding that everyone was looking at them.

“Who is it?” Neil asked as they closed the door behind them and the coach signaled everyone else to continue practicing.

“She wouldn’t tell me her name, just gave me this piece of paper with both of your names in it and your cell phone numbers in it.” He gave the paper to Neil and instantly identified it as the one he had given to Eli the week before. “She’s in the locker room and she’s really upset. I didn’t want to upset her more so as soon as I left her there I came to you guys.”

Neil nodded and gave him a small grateful smile. “Thank you.”

“No problem, and you guys don’t have to worry about practice, it's clear you are needed elsewhere, if you need more time off tell me, but don’t let it be too much, we still have a season to play.”

Neil gave him another grateful smile and turned towards the locker room quickly, making sure Ava could hear them approaching. When they got to the door, Neil tapped twice then thrice on the door, just as Andrew had that night and slowly opened the door. 

There, curled in a corner was Ava, wearing Neil’s coat that reached to the floor, an old t-shirt and shorts, the bruise on her eye was disappearing but there were new ones along her legs and Neil didn’t doubt there were more on her arms, her eyes carried a tired look, as if she hadn’t slept well for a long while. 

When she realized who they were, she stood up and watched them carefully, Neil realized she was asking for permission to go near them so he nodded at her. Almost immediately, she ran to Neil and pressed her head against his legs, almost making him stumble. He carefully detached her slightly from his legs and bent down to look at the girl.

“What happened? Where’s your brother?” Neil tried but Ava wouldn’t talk, instead she started crying more and her breathing got heavy. Neil looked at Andrew for help.

“Was it Chris?” Andrew asked Ava, who looked at him before nodding slowly and leaned into Neil, sniffing, and let her and wrapped an arm around her waist protectively.

“Is Eli hurt?” Another nod, faster this time, Neil watched as Andrew’s eyes darkened, Ava seemed to know that he was not angry at her as she stuck her thumb in her mouth and blinked heavily.

“Can you take us to where Eli is so we can help him?” She seemed to hesitate and started shaking so Neil quickly intervened before she went into a panic attack.

“I know you want to help Eli, we want that too but we need your help, don’t worry about Chris, we won’t let him harm either of you anymore.” he said, stroking her back in circular motions.

Ava took her head out of Neil’s shoulder and looked at them both, probably searching for a lie in their faces, but both Neil and Andrew didn’t move a muscle. After a few seconds she nodded again and leaned back down to Neil’s shoulder.

Given that their clothes were dirty and a little sweaty, they decided to change quickly, skipping the shower, and told Ava to sit on one of the benches while they hurriedly changed in the changing room. It took them less than five minutes. When they were done, they went to meet with Ava, who extended both of her hands for them, and hand in hand they went to the Maserati.

Since Ava wouldn’t speak, they had to constantly ask her if they were in the correct road and wait for her nod, she took them to a decent looking neighborhood, seven minutes away from the court. 

Neil couldn’t help but imagine little Ava running through this neighborhood to the court all by herself in the cold with no warm clothes. How many times had she run to the court by herself, scared of that Chris man, sitting under the bleachers, crying all by herself, hurt all over. How many people had she not runned passed that dismissed her or didn’t care enough to ask what was happening, or people that tried to stop her but didn’t think of her boundaries and only ended up distressing her more? How many people could have grabbed her and taken her away to make her suffer through worst things and-

Quick tapping on the window took Neil out of his train of thought, he looked back to Ava who was pressing her finger quickly, pointing at one of the houses. The house looked as if it had seen better days, it was a two-floor house, whose front yard was not kept clean, the grass seemed to be as high as Neil’s hips, and the windows were so full of dirt that one could not even see the inside through them. 

Andrew parked the car in front of the house and immediately Ava opened her door, leaving the coat behind, and ran into the house, Neil and Andrew followed her soon after. The front door was open so they invited themselves in, the first room they saw as soon as they entered was the living room, there were bottles of alcohol scattered through the floors and there was a rotting smell coming from somewhere inside the house.

A sudden shattering sound came from a room to their left and immediately they turned to the sound.

“Where the fuck were you?!” A deep male voice rang through the house and both men hurried around the hall to where it had come from. “Speak! Goddamnit!” A pause. “Are you an idiot or what?! SPEAK YOU RETARD!”

They followed the voice to the kitchen where a fat and bald forty-year-old looking guy had his ginormous fat hands around the small arms of a crying Ava as he shacked her furiously. Just beside them, on the floor Eli laid unconscious,an open bloody cut on his right arm and his left leg was twisted in an ugly angle.

“Release her,” Andrew demanded, his voice viciously cold, his hands curling into tight fists at his sides.

“Or what idiot? What can a midget like you possibly do?” The man, Chris, laughed as he stated his clear dare. 

It was the wrong thing to say, Andrew punched the man with his goalkeeper force in the face making Chris stumble and automatically release Ava, who ran to Neil and hid behind him. Andrew didn’t wait another minute and punched the man again, this time the man fell unconscious to the ground with a loud  _ thud.  _

Everything froze for a minute where no one moved and no sound could be heard, besides their heavy breaths, until Eli woke up hissing in pain, blinking rapidly a few times before he turned towards Chris’s unconscious body and then at the two men standing a couple of feet away, his eyes grateful, before searching for something or someone.

“Ava?” Eli whispered, pain noticeable in his voice, Ava ran to her brother's side, tears running down her cheeks. Eli lifted a shaky hand and whipped out her tears. 

“You okay? Did he hurt you?” Ava extended her hand to show him her arms where Chris’s hands were printed in her arms that would most probably bruise.

“It’s okay, we can put some ice there and it’ll get better.” Eli reassured before his hand went limp as he returned to unconsciousness.

Ava started crying again and ran to Neil, not quite touching, lifting her hands up, just like Neil had watched Dan’s child do when he wanted to be held. Neil obliged and easily scooped her up, instantly she laid her head in his shoulder as her body shook against him. He gently stroked her back in slow circular motions to calm her down a bit and rocked her side by side, trying everything he could to comfort the distressed girl.

“I’m gonna try to wake him up so we can take him to a hospital, you call the police,” Andrew said as he walked to Eli’s unconscious body. 

Neil knew this was a big deal for Andrew as the blonde would never dare to touch an unconscious person, even less a child, without a proper verbal consent so Neil did as he was told, not stopping his rocking, taking his phone out of his back pocket and calling the police.

“9-9-9 police department, how can we help?” The operator asked.

“We need the police at Brice Rudolph Avenue, Decker St., house 5667. A man named Chris has been physically abusing two minors, he is unconscious right now, one of the children is currently unconscious and me and my partner are taking him to Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children, meet us there if you have any questions, my name’s Neil Josten” Neil stated before hanging up on the call.

“Eli?” He heard Andrew call to the boy and receive a grunt in response. “It’s Andrew, one of the guys that were with Ava that night, we have to take you to the hospital for your leg, and probably your head, can I carry you to our car?” Eli seemed to be more conscious as he quickly sat up and tried to move.

“The hospital? N-no I-I’m fine, i-it doesn’t hurt.” Eli tried to sit up but grimaced at the movement, Andrew gave him a pointed look and the boy sighed in defeat and laid back down.

“Eli, I need you to verbally tell me that it's alright if I carry you.”

Eli seemed surprised at this but nodded. “Y-yes.”

Carefully Andrew wrapped his hand around the boy’s body, one supporting the boy’s back and the other under his legs, careful as to not hurt him more than he was already. Neil, hurried to help Andrew by opening the door on the back of the car. Andrew carefully laid the boy making sure his leg was lifted with the help of one of their coats and gave him the other one so he could place some pressure into the wound on his right arm.

When Eli was accommodated, Neil moved Ava with the intention to sit her beside her brother, but Neil was surprised to find out that the little girl had fallen asleep on him. 

If that made his heart skip a beat and his stomach to make a twirl, no one had to know.

“Um, could you not wake her up? Chris didn’t let us sleep as a form of punishment. I tried to let her take a nap while he was out... he was supposed to arrive later in the day. Let’s say he was not pleased when he saw her sleeping.” Eli gestured to his whole body.

Neil noted the lack of the word ‘please’, but he didn’t comment on it, he did live with someone who had an issue with the word, so he just nodded and readjusted the girl so she could be more comfortable in his shoulder. 

“Can I sit beside you?” Neil asked, the boy nodded and gave a tiny ‘yes’ so Neil carefully sat himself beside him, careful as to not touch him and grabbed the coat that was left behind by Ava and carefully placed it around her.

Soon enough they left for the hospital, the sounds of police sirens ringing behind them

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, I hate Chris but I'm glad Neil and Andrew finally got them away from him.
> 
> Fun fact about this chapter: This used to be the largest chapter I wrote but it ended up being the second smallest.
> 
> Now, remember when I asked you guys with who would you like Kevin to be with? There was a tie between Kevaron and Kerejean (is that how it's written? idk) (Here in Ao3 won kevaroon but I received a few messages on my tumblr and instagram) so I decided I would TRY to create a character that has all of their characteristics. Anyhow, Kevin and his partner will be Acesuxual.
> 
> Have a great day and see you in next chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eli and Ava are finally out of their abusive household but Eli is still hurt and needs to go to the hospital and while the doctors assist Eli's wounds, Neil and Andrew get a moment to talk and decide what to do next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Hospitals, very small anxiety attack, mentions of child abuse, small mentions of Andrew’s and Neil’s pasts, mentions of death, concussions, mentions of allergies 
> 
> Disclaimer: I'm not from the US and thankfully I've never been to an ER room so some things might seem a bit inaccurate but I tried to make it as real as I could by investigating.
> 
> Did you see that "Serendipity" is now part of a series??? I've got so many things planned for this!

Hospitals were not somewhere Neil nor Andrew appreciated, neither had had great experiences in hospitals, and trusting a stranger you barely know with your life was not something either of them would do if it were not completely necessary. 

Eli didn’t seem to like the idea of hospitals either, as they got closer to the hospital, the tenser the boy got, but his leg needed an x-ray and a cast, his right arm most definitely needed stitches and they didn’t know for sure if the boy had a concussion and if so, how severe it was, meaning he did need to go to a hospital.

They arrived at the hospital in nine minutes and took the boy to the emergency room, where a group of nurses told Andrew to lay the boy in one of the beds. Once Eli was settled in the bed, one of the nurses sat beside him and began examining the wound slowly reaching over for him so as not to scare him more than he already was.

“What’s your name sweetheart?” A nurse asked Eli, whose breathing was fast and panicky, with a soothing and calm voice.

“Eli,” he choked out, his voice shaky and breathless.

“All right Eli, I’m going to give you some anesthetic so I can stitch your arm,” She told him and began the process she had just explained. 

After the sedative settled she made sure to tell Eli each and every procedure she was about to do before actually doing it, probably noticing how it calmed the boy a bit.

“And we are done here!” She exclaimed as she finished stitching his arm. “Now we are going to take you to the x-ray room and we’re gonna place a cast in whichever color you like, eh?” She tried to reassure the boy that had been calm during the process of stitching his arm but once she mentioned that they were taking him away began panicking again.

Her attempts to calm Eli didn’t work, the boy’s breathing began to become ragged once again and as another nurse began lifting the railings of the bed, he turned to look at both Neil and Andrew, who had been at his side the whole time, fear evident in his glimmery eyes, Neil knew he was in the verge of a panic attack so he stepped forward to be beside him and tried to reassure Eli as best as he could.

“Hey, don’t worry, we’ll be out here with Ava waiting for you and once they are done taking your x-rays we can take Ava to you and leave her there or if you want us to, we can stay there with you two, all right?” Neil reassured, the boy looked at Ava’s sleeping form in Neil’s shoulder before nodding and taking a deep breath, letting the nurse take him away.

Not long after Eli had disappeared through the doors, the nurse who had lifted the railings of the bed came towards them and asked what happened. 

Neil explained how they had found Eli lying unconscious on the ground and how it appeared that Chris had thrown the boy across the room. He told her their suspicions about a concussion and the nurse nodded, writing something on her chart, before thanking them and walking away through the doors Eli had been taken to.

They were taken to the waiting room where thankfully there were not a lot of people and were able to sit there in silence for a few minutes, both of them thinking and processing what had just happened before a police officer came and asked for Neil. 

Neil did not want to talk with the police officer, even if he was now a free man, he did not trust them. He had seen how easily police officers could be sold off in Baltimore. Whilst debating what to do, Ava shifted in his arms, turning her head around to tuck her face into the crook of his neck. Immediately after she seemed to be comfortable on his shoulder, she brought her thumb to her mouth, grabbing a piece of his shirt in the movement, cuddling against it. 

At that exact moment, he realized he wanted these children to be safe and the only way to do that was to speak with the officer. Neil took a deep breath and begrudgingly called the officer over. 

He told the officer about that night and how they had found Ava, bruised and hurt all over. How they seemed too afraid of Chris to try to make a move against him. Told him about the week where they didn’t know how the children were until Ava came running to the court for them. How they had found Eli unconscious on the ground, Chris standing there beside the boy, and when he saw the girl, how he fiercely grabbed and shook her. How Andrew punched the guy into unconsciousness so they could take the children safely to the hospital.

The officer, Miller, nodded tightly at the end of the story and thanked him before he explained how Chris had been taken into custody and was currently in prison.

Neil asked him if he knew what would happen to the children once the hospital cleared them. Miller told them that the usual process was to search for any other relative that can take custody of the children, but for the time they searched, the children would be in foster care and if they didn't find any relatives, the children would have to stay in the system until hopefully, someone adopted them.

Miller thanked them once more and left them, oblivious to the state of mind he had left Andrew and Neil in. 

Neil couldn’t stop imagining these two children that had just come out from a hell and would probably enter another one if they were put in foster care. Neil knew that not every foster home was terrible, but many were literal hell, Andrew was an example of children who had been in these horrible foster homes.

The said blonde was staring at the wall across from them, his eyes dark and his face expressionless, Neil deduced Andrew was imagining Eli and Ava going through the system and going through what he went through. Neil wanted to take him out of his thoughts, out of the horrible memories, and make him feel a little better, but before he even got the chance to, Andrew turned to him.

“They cannot go there,” Andrew stated.

“I agree, so what do we do? Should we look for someone we trust that can care for them while they search for any relative?” Neil questioned.

Andrew thought about it. “What if we foster them and then, if there is no relative, we try for adoption?” 

Neil startled. “Neither of us had the best examples of parenting while growing up, do you think we could be enough for them?”

“We are not  _ them  _ Neil. We both know what it’s like to live with horrible caregivers, those who were supposed to keep us safe and away from the demons of the real world, and instead, they turned into the demons they were supposed to protect us from. I know neither of us is a hundred percent capable of this and we are not going to be the perfect parents, we didn’t have the best examples, but hell, I also know neither you nor I would want to repeat what these monsters did to us to anyone else, much less two children.”

Neil considered this, Andrew had a point, he couldn’t see himself burning Eli or Ava whenever either of them wasn’t quiet enough, slash them with knives to ‘teach them a lesson’, force them to learn how to kill, make them run for their lives, rape them repeatedly for desire or anything him and Andrew had had to go through in their early life. 

“You are right, but do you think they will let us foster with our backgrounds?”

“Maybe not, but there is a possibility if we get the help from Renee and her mom, Bee, and the FBI.”

“What about the Moriyamas?”

Andrew thought about it for a minute, Neil knew he had a point there. “We should ask them, but I doubt Ichirou will be a problem, two children are not going to risk your Exy career, there are many parents in pro teams, besides, they just care about the money. Also, let us not forget he let Jean and Jeremy adopt Alex and let the child off the debt.”

Neil took a deep breath and nodded. “So we try to foster them,” not a question but a statement.

“So we try to foster them,” Andrew repeated.

Neil wanted to ask if this was really okay with Andrew, seeing that if they did foster them, it might bring up horrible memories from his horrible homes and Neil did not want to do that, but Andrew seemed so sure of it so he said nothing. 

Andrew, probably knowing what Neil was thinking -wouldn’t be the first time-, reached over for Neil’s pinky, and with a smile, Neil locked their fingers together. 

Not so long after that, the nurse from earlier, the one that had attempted to calm Eli, walked towards them with a reassuring smile.

“Eli is fine, we placed a cast on his leg and the CT scan showed he has a mild concussion, he should be fine but he has a headache so we’d like to keep an eye on him for at least twenty-four hours in case the concussion worsens its condition. We also gave him some pain meds for his cut and his leg so he is a little high right now.” Neil exhaled in relief and felt Andrew doing so too. “He’s with a children’s services agent at the moment, but she should come to you with any updates.”

“Thank you,” Neil smiled and the nurse returned it before leaving them.

Not long after that, another woman approached. She was a young formal-looking woman, her blonde hair tied in a tight high bun, wearing a black women's suit and high heels whose face wore a friendly smile.

“Are you Neil and Andrew?” She asked.

“We are,” Neil replied.

“Excellent,” she smiled and extended her hand for them, Neil gave it to her -careful as not to wake up the little girl- whereas Andrew just looked at it and refused to give his, the woman seemed unfazed by this and easily retracted her hand. “My name is Rachel Lee and I’m from the CPS, I’ve been trying to speak with Eli but he won’t unless his sister, Ava, Neil, and Andrew, the guys that brought him here, are in the room with him. 

“In normal conditions I shouldn’t let you guys in, seeing that you are neither related to them nor are their legal guardians, but they clearly feel safe and comfortable around you,” she nodded toward the peacefully sleeping Ava in Neil’s arms. “And after what they’ve been through, I don’t want to upset them even more by trespassing their boundaries, so I will let you guys inside the room with him, but the second he wants you out, you leave.” She said sternly, the smile never leaving her face.

Both men nodded at her, it was safe to say she had earned a bit of their trust by respecting Eli’s boundaries. Neil would be lying if he said he didn’t feel a pang on his chest when she told them Eli wanted them with him. 

Carefully, and with a bit of help from Andrew, Neil stood up and followed her through the colorful corridors beside Andrew. They walked through multiple corridors, where all the walls were painted to resemble different biomes -an ocean, a savanna, a dessert, etc.- each with their respective cartoon animals until they got to a room labeled ‘observation unit’. 

The door leads them into another corridor where more doors were connecting to different rooms. They followed Rachel to room number 0803, where she knocked three times then one time, and opened the door until Eli called out that they could come in, his voice, Neil noticed, sounded shaky and tiny.

Rachel opened the door slowly and entered the room first, Neil noticed the blinds were brought down making the room dark, despite it being eleven am, light only coming from the EKG monitor and a small lamp on the top of the bedside table.

Eli’s left leg had a purple cast and was lifted with the help of some pillows, his shoulders were tense but at the moment he saw them enter the room, an expression of surprise formed on his face, as if he hadn’t expected them to be there, appeared before he let out a breath and relaxed a little. His eyes zeroed into Ava’s sleeping form almost immediately, a small smile forming on his lips as she saw her resting peacefully.

Knowing better than to stand in the middle of the room standing over Eli, Neil and Andrew went for the small couch beside the door and sat down, Neil reached for Andrew’s hand and the latter gave it easily. Rachel smiled at them and walked towards the stool settled beside the bed and took a folder from a bag that was on the floor next to the stool, and from it took two similar folders.

“All right, I guess we can now begin,” Rachel began with a smile. “I’m going to ask you a series of general questions, like your full name, age, etc. about you and your sister, if any question is too much we can skip it and continue with the next one, okay?” 

Eli looked over at where Neil and Andrew were seated, Neil began to think it was a silent request to step aside and leave the room so he could answer the questions privately, -which in his opinion it didn’t make so much sense as he had called them in before- but with his peripheral vision, he saw the small single nod Andrew gave the boy in reassurance. In return, the latter took a deep breath and turned back to Rachel, who had watched closely the exchange, and nodded.

“Okay,” he said.

“Great, let's start with your full names.”

“My full name is Richard Elijah O’Connor,” Neil noticed the small flinch the boy made at saying his full name. “Ava’s name is Avaleigh Paige O’Connor. Our father gave us our nicknames, we prefer using them.”

“When you say father, do you mean Chris?”

“No, our father died when I was seven and Ava was one. Mom met Chris a little after that and she got married to Chris when we were nine and two. Mom disappeared a couple of months later, Chris told us she went to work but we didn’t know from her for six months until a man came by our house to tell us she had died.” Eli said, placing an indifferent mask on his face, as if he didn’t care about it, but Neil and Andrew were familiar with these masks so they could see right through them, the boy was still hurt about it.

“Do you know where she went for those six months?”

“No, every time we asked about it Chris would beat us.” Eli shrugged, his hand rubbing absent-mindedly his left arm slowly spacing out of the conversation.

Rachel was quick on realizing it and quickly changed the conversation before the boy got too lost in his memories. “I understand, how old are you guys?”

Eli blinked a few times before answering. “I turned twelve in October and Ava will turn six in April.” 

Neil looked at Andrew, alarmed, Ava looked no older than four years old and Eli barely looked like a small ten-year-old. A look into Andrew’s face and Neil noted that he had already noticed it too, they were too small for their age meaning they were probably malnourished. Neil turned back to Rachel, who was holding the pen a little tighter as she seemed to have concluded this too.

After that, the questions were superficial, did they have any allergies (Eli was allergic to any kind of nuts and Ava was allergic to dust, tho it was just sneezing and a stuffy nose afterward). Did he know if they had any other relatives (no, their grandparents from their father’s side had died before Eli was born and from their mother’s they had disowned her when she got pregnant at eighteen with Eli and as far as they know, neither of their parents had siblings). Did their mother state with whom they were to go when she passed away (Eli shrugged). Did Chris legally adopt them when their mother passed away (Eli murmured that he doubted it).

Twenty minutes had passed by the time all the questions were answered, Rachel thanked Eli and excused herself as she told them she’d go out for a while whilst she made a call. When she left the room, Eli exhaled a deep breath and leaned down to the bed.

“Gosh, I began to think those questions were never gonna end,” he exclaimed, looking at the ceiling before rolling his head to the side so he could look at them. “Because I’m on pain meds and high as fuck, meaning I probably won’t remember this later, can I ask you guys something?”

“Sure,” Neil said, a little surprised by the mood change from the boy. Andrew nodded beside him.

“Okay,” Eli narrowed his eyes and looked at them seriously. “Why are you guys here? I mean, we are just two kids that their step-father beats them or gives them stupid punishments, like not being able to eat or sleep, and you are two pro league, exy extraordinaire players. 

“I know you two had horrible pasts, from what it has been revealed by the press, but you could’ve just brought us here and leave us with that Rachel girl and leave, but when I told Rachel that I wouldn’t speak unless you two were here if you still were, I didn’t expect you guys to  _ actually be here _ . And then the door opened and  _ boom!  _ You are still here, even though I’m pretty sure you probably have far more important things to do.” Eli blurted out.

Neil and Andrew stayed silent for a second before turning to Andrew.

_ The truth? _

_ The truth. _

“For the past week after we let you guys go, we were anxiously waiting for you guys to appear or call, hoping that nothing horrible would happen to you. Then Ava appeared at the court today and we were so worried, we didn’t think twice and went to get you. 

“You’ve been through hell, went through stuff no kid should have to go through, and we know what that feels like. So call us idiots if you want, but we want to make sure you get to have a better life and never have to go through hell ever again.” Neil replied honestly after a moment of silence where he chose his words.

Eli looked at him for a moment, letting everything Neil had just said and sink it in. The boy swallowed thickly and nodded and closed his eyes before opening them rather quickly.

“Oh! Before I forget, aren’t you two supposed to be rivals and hate each other?” Eli looked at their intertwined hands and Neil chuckled at that. 

“I do hate him,” Andrew replied, Neil couldn’t resist it and smiled lovingly at him before lifting their intertwined hands to peck Andrew’s knuckles. 

“Cool,” the boy replied, after watching this exchange, before closing his eyes, his head lolling on the pillow as he fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not gonna lie, this is one of my favorite chapters I've written and I'm kinda proud of it.
> 
> Fun fact: I wrote on a notebook my plans for this fanfic and I made an estimation on how many chapters will this take. The estimation is 11 chapters but knowing me, it'll be more than that because I get excited and write more than I should.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that the children are in a safe space, they get to experience a bit of domesticity and get to talk with Rachel about the requirements they need for the fostering license.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tw: Small mentions of child abuse, malnourishment in children, legal talk.
> 
> Disclaimer: I investigated so much for this chapter but a. I'm not from the US and b. it might be inaccurate, like, a lot. So, in any case if there is something wrong, I'm sorry.

Eli was able to sleep for approximately an hour before there was a loud knock outside the door, startling Andrew, Neil, and Eli, who woke up shooting out of his bed. Warily, the boy turned to the two men and seemed to calm the moment he saw them still there. 

When there was another knock on the door, the boy called, however, was outside, and from the door came a group that consisted of a doctor and two nurses trailing behind her. The doctor was young but had a look in her eyes that told them she knew what exactly she was doing. Her dark brown skin was mostly covered by her white coat and turtleneck shirt. She wore a smile as she entered the room but there was something in it that looked as if she were hiding something, probably from the children, Neil would ask next time he saw her.

The doctor approached the bed and began checking Eli’s vitals and asked him how he felt. It took less than five minutes for the doctors to record the information and leave the room. 

Rachel came back a little after the doctors left with the nurse from before, the one that had stitched Eli’s arm -now, sure he would be seeing much of her and as she had shown enough respect for boundaries, Neil decided to check for her name on her tag, it read her name was Sadie-, both of them telling them the children had to eat at least a little so they wouldn’t get sick and then they could rest some more. 

Eli had protested that Ava needed to sleep, repeating that Chris had punished them by not letting either of them sleep the night before, but Rachel gently asked if they had eaten breakfast, which the boy answered with a small ‘no’, and reminded him that both Ava and he had to eat something or they would get sick and once Ava was done eating, she could go back to sleep. Eli was silent for a minute, looking at his sister in Neil’s arms before sighing deeply and finally giving up.

They decided it would be easier for her to be woken up by Eli and since he couldn’t move out of the bed, Neil carefully carried Ava to the hospital bed. As gentle as he could be, Neil tried to lay her down on the bed beside Eli but this only resulted in Ava tightening her hold on Neil’s shirt and burying her head further into Neil’s neck, unwilling to let go. Neil watched Eli’s expression somewhat soften as he watched his sister hold onto Neil with all her might.

It took a while for Neil and Eli to finally detach Ava from Neil as they had to slowly and carefully release her hold on him, careful not to wake her up, and then lay her down slowly with the purpose that she couldn’t realize what was happening. 

There was a moment where everyone held their breath when Neil finally detached himself from Ava and laid her in the bed since her eyes started fluttering and she tossed on the bed, whining silently until her hand found Eli’s shirt and she grabbed onto it with the same tight grip she had on Neil.

Once she settled, Neil slowly made his way to the couch and stretched his stiff muscles -it’s not that Ava was too heavy, he had bench pressed far more heavyweights before, but he had been in the same position with said weights for a straight hour- before he sat next to Andrew, close enough to feel his body heat but not close enough to be touching yet Andrew closed the distance between them and extended his hand for Neil’s, Neil obviously gave his hand to Andrew and squeezed it as they watch Eli gently waking his sister up.

“Hey sleepyhead, time to wake up,” Eli whispered as he gently brushed his fingers through Ava’s hair, in return, Ava cuddled closer to him but didn’t open her eyes.

“Come on bug, you gotta eat something, and when you’re done, you can take another nap if you want.” Eli shook her shoulder a little and in return, Ava muttered something no one really understood since she was still sucking on her thumb, Eli gently pried off her thumb from her mouth and gently asked her to repeat it.

“Don’t wanna,” the girl repeated sleepily. 

It was the first time Neil heard her voice since she had apologized repeatedly when he met her that night. Her voice was rough with sleep and probably for not using it for a while but besides that, her voice was tiny and sweet.

“You gotta eat bug,” the boy tried again, going back to brush his fingers through her hair.

Ava was about to say something else when there was a loud thump somewhere in the hall, it was not too loud but it still startled everyone in the room. Eli flinched and wrapped an arm protectively around his sister, who had jumped and turned around to cover her face in Eli’s shoulder. Andrew and Neil held each other’s hand more tightly and Rachel turned to look at where the noise came from. They were silent for a second as they tried to calm their quick heartbeats.

Neil watched as Ava fully woke up and analyzed the setting around her, she scanned the room from over Eli’s shoulder and then turned around. Her eyes widened when she saw Neil and Andrew sitting on the couch, they watched as she slowly remembered where she had fallen asleep and deducted what happened since she looked from Neil to Eli and back to Neil, then smiled at them and continued looking around. When her gaze reached Rachel, her eyes widened in alarm before hiding her face from her in Eli’s neck.

“Hello Ava, my name is Rachel Lee and I’m just here to help you guys, I will not harm you in any way, all right?” Rachel said without moving from where she stood, Ava nodded and took her face away from Eli but still gave Rachel a wary look. 

“How about we give you guys your lunch so you can go back to sleep if you’re still tired?” Rachel asked with a smile, which was returned with two nods. “All right, I’ll go fetch your food while you stay here with Mr. Josten and Mr. Minyard.”

With that she opened the door and left the room, almost immediately Ava relaxed and assessed her surroundings better. 

“Does it hurt?” Ava asked after a while pointing at Eli’s left leg, where the cast was, her voice now less sleepy and louder.

“A little, the doctors gave me some medicine so it doesn’t hurt anymore.” Eli shrugged.

Ava hummed in understanding before turning to Neil and Andrew. “Will Chris come back?” She asked, her voice wary.

“No,” Andrew's voice sounded bored yet Neil could hear the anger towards Chris in it. “He will no longer hurt you and if he dares to touch even a single hair from any of you he will regret it.”

Neil watched as the two children searched for a lie in their faces and once they found none, they relaxed even more and nodded at Andrew.

“What’s going to happen to us now?” Eli asked.

“As far as we know, you’ll be going to foster care while they search for any relative that can take you in, and if they don’t find one then you’ll stay in foster care,” Neil explained and watched as Eli paled whilst Ava gave him a confused look, Neil took a deep breath and turned to Andrew, who squeezed his hand, encouraging him to continue. 

“Andrew and I talked about it, and we want to ask Rachel if you can come live with us, but there will be a lot of legal things for this to be able to happen although there is a big possibility you’ll spend a few months in foster care while we get everything done, but for the time you are there, we will try to visit you guys as much as we can, all right?”

“Thank you,” Eli choked out after a moment of silence.

“No need to thank us,” Neil smiled.

They heard a tap on the door, the one Rachel had used before, and Eli called her to enter the room. Rachel came in, Sadie trailing behind her, pushing a cart with two big plates in it, both filled with vegetables, rice, and a piece of meat, besides it a bowl of fruit. 

Sadie placed the cart to the side and walked to the other side of the room to help Eli sit up on the bed with the purpose he could eat and pulled the overbed table before bringing the plates and placing them on it.

“Can we watch some television?” Ava asked silently, her gaze fixed at the plate in front of her rather than any of the adults present.

“Yes, of course, you can sweetheart.” Sadie smiled and gave Ava the television remote control before leaving the room with a small sad smile.

The kids ate and watched a children’s cartoon silently, grinning and giggling softly every now and then. 

Ten minutes later, the children claimed they had finished eating, even though they had eaten about half of what they had been served. Neil knew this was not good since Rachel and Sadie would’ve made sure their plates were served with the amount of food children their age are supposed to eat on a daily basis but no adult in the room commented on it. 

In fact, as the kids told them they were done, Neil and Andrew helped them settle in the bed whilst Rachel took the food away and went for a ‘do not disturb’ sign from the nurses' station and hung it on the door before excusing herself again claiming she had been called in for another child just a few doors away.

It didn’t take long for Eli to fall back into the world of unconsciousness after Rachel left. As soon as she closed the door behind her, Eli adjusted himself to lay comfortably on the bed leaving a big enough space for Ava, and closed his eyes. Within a minute he was already snoring lightly.

Ava seemed to have problems falling asleep though. She tossed and turned on the bed, seemingly unable to find a good position to fall asleep to. Neil and Andrew watched her silently, their attention no longer at the movie playing silently on the television hanging from the ceiling. Sometimes it seemed as if she had found a position as she closed her eyes, but five minutes later she would let out an exhausted groan and toss around again.

“Ugh!” Ava grunted after twenty minutes of tossing around the bed, throwing her hands to her sides.

“Can’t sleep?” Neil asked softly.

“No, too many thoughts in my head,” Ava admitted softly turning to face them. 

“Want to talk about them?” The girl shook her head shyly. “It’s okay, we can talk about something else if you want.” The girl’s face lit up.

“You play exy right?” she added after a few seconds of silence.

“Yes.”

“Sadly yes,” Andrew mumbled behind Neil.

“That’s so cool!  _ Mama  _ used to tell us stories of how she and  _ Papa _ met because of Exy. She used to take us, when Chris was not home, to the court and tell us stories.”

“That’s why you hid there,” Andrew guessed.

“Yeah.” She smiled. “I was scared to go there at first but I’m happy I went because you found me and if you didn’t we would still be with Chris.”

“You know how’s that called? It’s called a Serendipity.”

“Serendipity. I like that word, what does it mean?” inquired Ava.

“It means to find something good without looking for it,” Andrew replied for Neil.

They talked with the girl for another ten minutes about whatever caught the girl’s attention, from Exy to the movie that was playing on the television to their favorite cartoons, until she yawned silently and tried to battle sleep as she started a new dialogue, yet sleep seemed to have won the battle as she drifted mid-sentence and fell into a peaceful sleep.

The two adults stayed in the same quiet position before standing up as quietly as they could and exiting the room to wait for Rachel to talk about their petition to take the children in. 

They didn’t have to wait too much, as they stood side by side leaning on the wall, they watched Rachel exit a room up the hall, smiling. When she noticed them outside the room, her face faltered and the smile changed into a face of confusion and walked towards them.

“Are they all right?” she asked concerned as she stopped right in front of them.

“Yes, they fell asleep not long ago but we hoped to speak with you.” Neil hinted.

“Sure, what is it?”

“Andrew and I talked and we’d like to take the children in if they have no other relative.” Rachel smiled at this as if she had been waiting for these words to come out from Neil’s mouth for a long time.

“I was hoping you would say this, both Eli and Ava feel comfortable and safe around you and I feel like there would be no better place than with you. Do you have the approved foster care license?”

“No, this is what we wanted to speak with you about.”

“Oh, all right. This process usually takes about five to six months to be approved.” Neil’s breath hitched, he hadn’t expected it to take this long, Andrew stilled behind him probably feeling the same way Neil did. Rachel must have seen this because she tilted her head before adding something else with a thoughtful face. “ _ But,  _ I’ve heard of cases that have taken about three to four months, and if we begin soon I think we can do it in that amount of time.”

Both Neil and Andrew nodded at her, completely on board in this. Rachel nodded back and with a smile pulled a file from her bag, she opened it and scanned it quickly.

“You already meet the basic qualifications: over 21 years old; you are partners, right?” They nodded. 

Legally they were husbands, they had gotten married after Neil had gotten his tonsils out and there had been a slight complication but Andrew hadn’t been able to stay the whole time because they were not family. They talked about it and decided that in an emergency they would be able to stay with the other. No one knew about this, except for Kevin and Aaron, given that they needed witnesses and Bee because Andrew had talked about it with her. They didn’t label themselves as husbands or boyfriends given that those words didn’t begin to cover their relationship.

“All right, thanks; I’m guessing you own a home.”

“We do, we have a three-bedroom house,” Neil replied.

“Perfect, I’ll still have to approve it, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.” She turned from the folder to look at them seriously. “These are the basics, I will still need a home study, history on your monthly income, three references from any friend, family, co-worker that have seen you actively interact with children and how you act around them.

“Two background checks, a legal one and a psychological one, with the purpose the agency can tell you are capable of fostering, and finally, you’ll have to do fifteen hours of orientation. Once we have that, a judge will revise your application and once he approves it you can take them home and we can talk about what happens after that.” she finished with a small apologetic smile.

Neil tried to organize all in his mind to get all of these requirements made. He had to call Ichirou before anything else, Neil had helped Jean and Jeremy get permission to adopt Alex and let the child off the debt, it had been easy since Ichirou was now a father with an unknown partner. Thanks to that, Neil didn’t doubt they would get permission from the Moriyamas.

Both Andrew and Neil had enough people that had children and they both had taken care of them at least once -Dan, Matt, Jeremy, Jean, Aaron, and Katelyn- therefore they didn’t have to worry much about the references. 

Being pro players gave them more than enough money, even if more than half of Neil’s yearly income was taken by the Moriyamas, they still earned more than enough. As to how they would explain the fact that eighty percent of what Neil did monthly was given to pay off his debt, the Moriyama’s were not dumb, the bank would ask too many questions as to why they gave that much money away, the money was given off to “Charities” around the country so in the end, no questions were asked.

Neil was a hundred percent sure the fifteen hours of orientation would be hell, especially if there were other parents with them, talking and discussing the reasons why they wanted to adopt and repeat the sob stories as to how they couldn’t have their own children or how they wanted to help the community and whatever.

The only issue Neil could see was the background checks. Bee could help them with the psychological background, as years went by, their mental health grew better and better. They didn’t ask ‘yes or no’ on regular days, only on the really bad days. Their nightmares didn’t come as regularly as years before and Andrew never stopped going to weekly sessions. Bee had helped him find a good psychiatrist in Denver and every month they had at least one virtual session apart from their weekly calls.

Neil never went to therapy, -he still didn’t trust shrinks and had only accepted Bee because she was Andrew’s spiritual mother and there was no way he could ignore her- yet, thanks to Andrew’s nagging, he had taken over cooking as a therapeutic activity after Andrew took baking as his therapeutic activity. Even though he had not believed in it at first, cooking had helped Neil a lot.

The FBI could clear Neil from his criminal past, he had never killed unless it was in self-defense, and Andrew’s ‘crimes’ weren’t bad enough to be a huge problem. There was no issue there, but Neil knew any sane judge would not let two men who had been raised by horrible parenting and were abused in their childhood, would let two children, who had just come out from an abusive home, go to their house. Adding to this, their famous ‘Minyard-Josten Rivalry' that was always trending on the exy community platforms.

Neil knew it was going to be hard, but as he turned to look at Andrew, who was looking at him back, he knew they were going to try everything they could to get the custody of both kids and take them home, to safety.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I can now die in peace, a post I wrote on tumblr was reposted in instagram and I didn't think it would ever happen to me.
> 
> Apart from that, I'm having the wildest writer's block ever, I'm currently writing chapter 6 (which is a filler chapter) and I already know what I want to happen there, but I don't know how to write it.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before Neil and Andrew can begin the process to apply for foster care, they have to make a call and afterwards, we learn why Eli does not like hospitals.
> 
> (This chapter has so much angst (in my opinion) and I’m not sorry about it, like, be ready. Please check the Tws just in case.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tws: Mentions of broken bones, mentions of fractures that did not healed correctly, Ichirou is a little bit OOC btw, nightmares, panic attack, mentions of death, car crash, forced sedation, dissociation, mentions of convulsions, Neil thinking about people thinking Andrew is a psychopath, mentions of clinical exams,
> 
> If I'm missing something, or something that triggers you and it is not in this list please let me know.

Rachel, Neil, and Andrew continued talking in the hallway about their plans and how everything would go down, when the doctor that had been in the room before, walked towards them, glancing at the door to Eli’s room. 

“Is he asleep?” The doctor whispered.

“Yes, what’s the matter?” Rachel asked, turning her full attention to the doctor in front of them. Before speaking, the doctor turned towards Neil and Andrew knowing that the children were in the care of the state and legally no one other than the CPS could know about the children's diagnosis. Rachel seemed to understand the look since she looked at the doctor and told her they could stay and listen to whatever she had to say.

“All right then. My name is Doctor Dahlia Ibori, and I am the doctor in charge of Eli, nice to meet you. I need to speak with the three of you about Eli’s... situation but I didn’t want to discuss this in front of the children, given their situation, if you could follow me please.” Andrew barely flinched at the word and Neil understood that at that moment Eli was far more important than his discomfort with the word. 

They quietly followed the doctor to a door down the hall that led to an office. The office was small, it had a single desk with multiple cabinets labeled from A to Z behind the desk and three chairs in front of the desk. Dr. Ibori went to the cabinet labeled ‘M-O’, once they were inside and sat on the chairs, from the cabinet she pulled a big yellow manila folder. She opened it and carefully took the x-rays out of the folders before placing them on the vertical whiteboard with a light that let them see the x rays that hang beside the door. Immediately, Neil’s eyes landed on the fracture on Eli’s leg, it was hard not to miss, it was a sideways fracture that broke the bone into two parts. 

“Here,” Dr. Ibori said, pointing with her finger at the space in between the two fractured bones. “Is Eli’s fracture, as you can see it's a displaced oblique fracture. But, if you look closely here.” She pointed to three lumps in different sizes on the bone. “You can see that this is not his first fracture, but these past fractures were not treated correctly. 

“From what I can tell, these were small fractures so it should not be an issue for him in the future but if he breaks his leg once more in this same area he will have to get surgery. But this is not the only thing I wanted to discuss with you. I’m afraid Eli could have other fractures that didn’t heal correctly thus I would like to make a full check on him. This means x-rays and a full-body tomography.”

“We will talk to him, but it will be his decision if he wants to do this or not. If he says yes and later on decides he doesn’t want to continue, then we’ll stop immediately” Rachel told Dr. Ibori, who nodded in understanding and led them back to the hallway in front of Eli’s room.

“Once he tells you his decision could you let me know?” The three of them nodded. “Thank you.” Dr. Ibori added before leaving them in the hallway.

Once they were alone once again, Rachel turned to them. “Could you two ask Eli about these exams? He is far more comfortable with you two than anyone else in this building and if there’s something that is troubling him, there's a big possibility he will tell you.” She looks at them in the eyes with an emotion Neil couldn’t quite understand but he nodded at her, receiving a nod in return.

After Rachel was called from the other room by a nurse, she gave them one last smile and walked towards the other room. Seeing that they would not enter the room since the children would most probably wake up with the sound of the door opening and knowing they needed as much rest as possible, Neil realized that this was the perfect moment to call Ichirou and ask for his permission so they could begin the process of foster care and later on, adopt.

“We should call Ichirou now that we have some free time and let him know about the situation,” Neil suggested.

“I’ll go with you,” Andrew replied, walking alongside Neil in the hallway towards one of the fire exits that lead to an outside area.

There was no one beside them there, granting them the privacy they would need for the matter at hand. Neil reached for Andrew’s hand and became surprised as Andrew already had him there, waiting for Neil’s. The latter laced their hands together and squeezed, receiving another firm squeeze in return, and with a deep breath he scrolled down his contacts to the one he thought he would never call willingly.

The call connected in the third ring.

“Nathan- I’m sorry, Neil, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Ichirou’s voice came through the speaker, boomy and deep, though Neil could hear a tinge of tiredness in his voice.

“My lord, I hoped to speak with you about a matter that must be discussed immediately,” Neil told him, trying to be as polite as possible, reminding himself that he was not doing this for himself, he’s doing it for the two children that trust them and feel safe around them who currently lay asleep in one of the hospital rooms behind him.

“Well then, speak up, what is it that you need? Need to hide a body? A thug to intimidate someone? Someone to mysteriously disappear? Someone to have a terrible accident?”

“Neither. Opposed to those, my matter is rather simple. You see, last week Andre and I met two children and we helped them get out of their home, away from their abusive step-father, today, but you see, for what the CPS knows, they have no other relatives.”

“So what you’re trying to tell me is that you want to apply for fostering these children?”

“Yes, I am.”

“I thought I had made myself clear when the french and golden boys came with you to ask me for permission to adopt, you have my permission to foster and/or adopt children and they won’t be part of your debt.”

“Thank you, my lord.”

“Yeah, yeah, and tell the green-eyed boy that if he wants to have children, he has my permission as well and the child won’t be part of his debt.” 

“I will tell him my l-”

“You know what, I know you are supposed to call me ‘my lord’ but it makes me feel old and reminds me of my father, which you must understand why I do not want to be reminded of him, just call me by my name.”

“Okay...Ichirou.”

“All right then, now good luck with the fostering process, and if there is something that might uncover the Moriyama name, even by a tiny bit, you let me know so I can send some men to fix that all right?”

“Will do.”

“All right, goodbye Neil,” Ichirou said before hanging up but Neil thought he had heard a familiar voice in the background,  _ probably one of his men that I’ve met at least once,  _ he supposed.

Neil took a deep breath and let a small grin tug his lips before turning to Andrew, who Neil knew had heard the conversation. Now with Ichirou’s permission, they could begin with the process of getting a fostering license and try to get it approved as soon as possible.

In Neil’s whole adulthood, he had never imagined he would consider taking care of children, much less having them. He had been good with Dan and Matt’s baby as well as Alex, but he had never been alone with them, never been completely in charge of them. Even though he was godfather to Matt and Dan’s child, the idea of ever taking charge of him had never crossed his mind.

Yet now, as he is about to enter the process for a fostering license, he feels ready. Ready to take those two children to his home and transform it into  _ their  _ home. Show them what it is like to feel safe and comfortable somewhere without the constant fear of being beaten up or being deprived of food and sleep. Neil knew that he and Andrew would never be the picture-perfect family, they would have their downfalls and won’t know what to do in some cases, but they will try, try to be good parents. For some, this is enough. So they will try.

“When do we begin?” Neil asks Andrew.

“I’d say tomorrow, the children are still too rattled and we still have to organize ourselves as to what we will do. Plus we will have to tell the ex-foxes.”

“All of them?”

“We can start with Renee, but we will have to in the end. Or would you rather have them all interrogating and protesting as to why we didn’t tell them sooner?”

“Good point.”

“We should head back,” Andrew says looking back to where they had come from, a certain gleam in his eyes that Neil only sees when Andrew feels the need to protect someone and Neil gets it.

Before they had first separated from the boy back in the emergency room, the boy’s expression had changed from a slight fear from being at the hospital to full panic when he realized he would be taken away and only calmed a bit after he was reassured they would stay. Then, after he had asked for them to come to his room, the look of surprise on his face as soon as they stepped into the room was later clarified when he told them he hadn’t actually expected them to have stayed and come back to him. The boy had said he expected them to be gone as soon as they left him in the hands of the nurses but deep inside him he had  _ wanted  _ them to still be there. That’s why after his initial hour-long nap, which had been disturbed, he had searched for them as soon as he woke up. He wanted them to be there, to be beside him. 

Neil could see from where that came from, Eli had said their father died when they were young, and not too long after that, their mother had left them with their abusive step-father for six months before they had been told she had died. The boy had abandonment issues and if he woke up alone, both Neil and Andrew were nowhere in sight, gone without having said goodbye, it would stress him and make him go into panic.

“Let’s go,” Neil replies.

Together, they walked back to the room and opened the door as silently as they could to not wake the children up but they didn't even stir, demonstrating how tired they were. Neil and Andrew walked back to the couch they had been sitting on before and got comfortable in it, Neil cuddled against Andrew’s side, his hands around the latter’s torso and Andrew’s arms around Neil keeping him close. Neil closed his eyes and enjoyed the steady beep of Eli’s heartbeat, neither he nor Andrew would fall asleep there, they were in a hospital, but they could enjoy the peace and quiet as the children slept.

  
  


The peace and quiet lasted for ten minutes.

There had been no disturbances, no one from the medical staff had approached to check on Eli and Rachel had not returned yet -Neil guessed it was because she trusted them to keep the children safe- and both men had been quietly entertaining themselves, Andrew reading from his phone and Neil watching the movie that had been playing silently on a corner of the room. 

That was until a small whine came from one of the children on the bed.

At first, Neil thought he had imagined it but he kept his gaze toward the children in case it hadn’t been his imagination. Right, when he had begun to convince himself that maybe it  _ was  _ his imagination, Eli’s breathing began increasing speed and he let out another whine. Neil and Andrew hurried to his side just as the boy began thrashing around, accidentally waking up his sister.

“Eli?” Ava asked softly as she rubbed her eyes, her voice groggy from sleep. When she saw her brother turning in his sleep, whining softly, she looked over to Neil and Andrew and once they got beside the bed, she climbed down and stood beside Andrew, quietly watching the two men try to calm her older brother.

“Hey, Eli, wake up, it’s just a bad dream,” Neil spoke loudly enough to be heard but not to scare the boy, yet the boy didn’t seem to hear him.

“He can’t hear you,” Ava whispered to them as she watched her brother.

“What do you mean?” Neil asked, trying not to sound too harsh.

“He can’t hear you when he’s having a nightmare, I’ve tried. Sometimes he will wake up by himself but if he doesn’t then I have to shake his shoulder ‘till he opens his eyes.”

Neil felt a wave of rage overcome him as he thought about these two small children having to lean on each other knowing they had no one else. A look into Andrew’s still form told Neil Andrew was feeling the same way. But before they could add anything else, Eli was startled into a sitting position, in full panic mode.

The EKG monitor beeped rapidly demonstrating how quick Eli's heart rate was, his breathing was short and it didn’t seem as if he was getting too much oxygen in his body. His eyes roamed the room but he didn’t seem to separate reality from his nightmare. Neil knew how frightening this was, not being able to trust what you are seeing since you can never be sure.

“Hey, Eli, you’re safe. We’re at Rocky Mountain Hospital, Ava is safe, you are safe and Chris can’t hurt you anymore,” Neil repeated until the boy’s eyes landed in Neil’s face and took a deep breath, which was cut off by a cough.

“Eli, can I touch you?” Andrew asked calmly, receiving a nod from the boy. Immediately, Andrew placed his hand behind Eli’s neck which resulted in another deep breath from the boy. Being familiar with nightmares of his own, Neil knew he had to make Eli calm down, so he approached the boy's side and caught his attention.

“Eli, can you tell me five things you can see?”

“Uh- um, I-I can s-see you, A-Andrew, A-Ava, the-the TV, a-and the bl-blinds.” 

“Good. Now, can you tell me four things you can feel?”

“A-Andrew’s hand o-on my neck, the c-cast on m-my leg, um… the b-bed, and um… my cl-clothes.”

“You’re doing great Eli. Can you tell me three things you can hear?”

“I can h-hear you, the mon-monitor, and my breathing.”

“Two things you can smell?” 

“I can smell the w-weird hospital smell and your body spray.”

“Hospitals do smell weird. Finally, one thing you can taste?”

“My breath...I really need to wash my mouth.” Neil chuckled along with the children, even Andrew’s mouth had curled upwards a little in amusement, who gently removed his hand from the boy’s neck once he was settled.

“We’ll see what we can do about that.” 

They fell into a comfortable silence after that, but Neil watched Eli closely as the latter turned his gaze to his lap and played with the hem of his shirt as he seemed to think. Neil didn’t intervene, given that his breathing was even and his heart rate was normal, Neil knew Eli wasn’t deep on his mind, but in any case, the boy went into panic again, he and Andrew would be there to take him out of it again.

Seconds that turned into minutes passed until the boy nodded at himself and took a deep breath before turning to look at both Neil and Andrew, yet not meeting either’s eyes.

“I-I don’t like hospitals,” the boy hesitated.

“You sure you want to talk about it? You don’t have to if you don’t feel comfortable and if you do and want to tell us but can’t continue, we won’t mind, okay?” Neil reassured receiving a nod.

“Okay. Um, when I was sev-seven, I was in the car with my father a-and we were tal-talking when a drunk driver crashed with us. Sin-since the other car had been at full speed and it had hit my father’s side, he was rushed to the hospital. I-I just had a broken arm and s-some cuts but they took me with him. We were separated, h-he had to go to a-an emergency sur-surgery and a nurse took me to a-another room.” Eli had been saying this shyly and softly but as he continued narrating the story, his eyes were glazed and Neil knew he was no longer in the room. 

His voice changed from shy and small to an indifferent tone as if he were in automatic mode. Dissociation was not new to Neil nor Andrew, they both have experienced this so they just continued hearing the boy’s story.

“I didn’t want to go, I wanted to see my father but they wouldn’t let me, and I punched and kicked the nurse and actually got to get rid of her hold but outside the room, there were two other nurses that grabbed me and gave me a sedative. When I woke up, I had a cast on my arm and mom was in the room with Ava. Not long after that. a nurse came to tell us that if we wanted to say goodbye, then it was the time to do it.

“The first thing I noticed when I saw him was how pale he looked, his skin had paled and it looked gray despite the multiple cuts and bruises along his body. We didn’t get to stay long with him given that five minutes after we arrived he began convulsing. The doctors tried to help him but it was in vain, they already knew he was going to die. Since then I haven’t been a big fan of hospitals and now I’m in one and my brain decided to give me a hard time by reminding me of this.” The boy chuckled, shaking his head, not meeting anyone’s eyes.

“Well, I won’t let any mean doctor come near you ‘ _ mano,  _ and if someone tries to I’m gonna scream so loudly it'll hurt,” Ava vowed the truth in her innocent promise leaking everywhere.

“Thank you bug.” Eli smiled and ruffled her hair.

“Well, if that doesn’t make anyone back off, then Andrew and I will make them stop. We have our ways,” Neil winked whilst Andrew agreed with a nod.

“Let’s just say people don’t call me the ‘scariest goalie in Exy’ for nothing,” Andrew smirked.

Any ‘normal’ kid would be a little scared about the statements but Eli and Ava just laughed at it and shook their heads as if they didn’t believe him. Personally, Neil didn’t like the nickname, Andrew was constantly treated as if he were a psychopath. Even the foxes, who were their family, had believed Andrew was crazy and would call him a monster -As years passed, it became a loving nickname but if they heard anyone calling Andrew like that, they would put up a fight-. Andrew didn’t mind, he didn’t care,  _ still  _ doesn’t care but Neil did care. Andrew was anything but a monster. 

Neil turned to look at Andrew and internally melted at the scene in front of him. Andrew gently lifted Ava to get her back on the bed and when she was settled he sat at the edge of the bed while Ava chatted excitedly to him about something Neil couldn’t quite get, given that she was speaking softly. At one point, Ava unconsciously reached for Andrew’s hand as she spoke and the latter gave it to her, letting her fidget with his fingers.

If Neil could bring every single person who has ever said that Andrew was a psychopath to the room at that exact moment, he would and would ask them if they believed Andrew was a psychopath just to watch them choke on their words. 

Eli was watching them quietly, smiling at the excitement of her little sister.

“She never talks like this to anyone,” the boy whispered to Neil. “She’s usually really shy and will not talk or touch anyone.”

“Well, I guess that means we’re doing something right.”

“Yeah.” The boy smiled as he turned to look at Neil.

The latter didn’t want to ruin this moment of peace where everyone felt okay and there were smiles, but they had told Rachel they would talk to Eli about the exams so reluctantly he turned to Eli and took a deep breath.

“Eli, we need to talk about something. When you guys were asleep, we went outside to talk to Rachel when Dr. Ibori came to us and led us to her office. There she showed us your x-rays and told us she noticed your leg had been broken before but it didn’t heal correctly. She explained that it wasn’t a big issue right now, but she told us she wanted to check if you didn’t have a big injury. We told her it would be your decision whether you went through those exams or not.” Neil watched as Eli’s smile faltered into a slightly scared one.

“W-what kind of ex-exams would they b-be?”

“Some x-rays and a tomography, Do you know what a tomography is?” Eli shook his head. “A tomography is a combination of an x-ray machine and a computer to create images of your bones, organs, and other stuff in your body. It helps doctors locate injuries and/or diseases. It's the one they did in your head earlier today.” 

“Will you guys be there?” The boy said ever so silently, looking down at his lap. Neil could hear the boy's screams for them to stay with him for the exams. 

“If they let us, yes, but if they don’t, we will be waiting for you in the room with Ava.” Neil slowly reached for the boy’s shoulder, in a way that he had enough time to stop him, but when he didn’t Neil gently rubbed his thumb in Eli’s shoulder to give some kind of comfort to the boy.

“Okay,” the boy whispered, leaning into Neil’s touch before looking back up.

“Okay, we’ll tell Rachel when she comes back.” Neil smiled, gaining one in return.

Eli blinked heavily and let out a long yawn. He looked  _ tired. _ Neil couldn’t complain, it had been less than ten minutes since Eli had the panic attack and then he had told them the trauma he experienced when his father died, he ought to be tired. Gently, Neil pushed Eli down without a problem nor protest. The boy was so tired that he might have not even realized what was going on.

Neil never stopped rubbing Eli’s shoulder, not when the boy moved around to get comfortable, not when the boy closed his eyes and leaned into the touch and therefore scooted closer to Neil, not when Ava started talking to him about her favorite food, and much less when the boy’s breaths finally turned deep, soft and even.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentines day!
> 
> Who else wants to hug Eli right this moment? I know I do. Now, next chapter contains more fluff because of this angsty chapter haha. Anyways, let me know what you think in the comments and thank y'all for almost 1k hits! Love y'all <3
> 
> (oh btw, are you liking my writing style? Idk how to feel about it tbh...)
> 
> Fun fact: This past month I've been reading many irondad and spiderson fanfics, I didn't know I needed them until I began reading them, and I might have written one of my own haha.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eli's tests. Some fluff. Some light angst (because I can't help myself). Minyard-Josten Rivalry mentions.
> 
> This is a filler chapter sooooo its a bit weird haha.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tw. Mentions of Nathan and his inner circle, Neil in the verge of a panic attack, (there’s a moment if 1st person POV, but it's really small and if you don’t like, it then skip past the whole paragraph in italics), (I try to write them as the most in character I can, but I think I did Neil a little OOC in a part, but we needed THE FLUFF after last chapter soooooo,,,, yeah ). (Also, yes, I know that for the test you’re not supposed to have eaten beforehand but by the time I realized this, it was too late so let’s ignore that part.) References of past child abuse, mentions of scars, mentions of anxiety, gender talk (its about a stuffed animal but if you think I wrote it wrong, let me know so I can change it) abandonment issues, separation anxiety, light angst.
> 
> Disclaimer: I am no doctor so some of this might be wrong.

Neil, Andrew, and Ava spoke softly, careful not to wake up Eli, for about twenty minutes before there was a recognizable knock on the door that Neil had come to associate with Rachel. Not wanting to wake Eli after his nightmare and panic attack, Neil stopped rubbing Eli’s shoulder before carefully standing up and going for the door.

“Eli’s asleep,” Neil whispered as he opened the door and looked at Rachel.

“Still or were you able to ask him about the exams?” 

“He woke up from a nightmare and when we were able to get him to calm down, I asked him, then he fell asleep.” 

“Oh, okay. I’m going to tell Dr. Ibori and then we can begin the exams.” Rachel smiled and turned to walk away.

“Okay,” Neil called after her as he closed the door.

When he turned, Eli had woken up and was now sitting up, a small tension at his shoulders, and his eyes kept following Neil with a glint of worry in them as if he was prepared for Neil to leave. Knowing better than to mention it, Neil made his way back to where he had been sitting before and watched as Eli’s shoulders untensed once he was settled.

“What did she want?” Andrew asked.

“She came by to see if Eli had said yes to the tests. She will be coming back with Dr. Ibori in a little while.” 

They didn’t have to wait much longer, about five minutes later, the knock came back, though it came much softer this time. Rachel probably thought Eli’s still asleep, Neil rationalized just as said boy called out for her to enter the room. Rachel entered the room first, her smile growing as she saw where the four of them were at, and right behind her came Dr. Ibori and a nurse, Sadie. As soon as the two latter came into the room, Ava’s breathing hitched and she scooted closer to Eli, exactly as she had done when she met Rachel the first time. Eli wrapped his arms around her shoulders and rubbed her arm comfortably while he watched the doctor and the nurse.

“Good afternoon, my name is Dr. Ibori and I will be taking your exams, Eli. I’m guessing Mr. Minyard and Mr. Josten told you about them, right?” Eli nodded. “Great. The exams won’t be that long but in any case, you need to stop, tell us so and we’ll stop.”

Eli nodded looking down at his lap before looking up at Neil sheepishly, his lips pulled tight, a silent request in his eyes.

“Can we accompany him?” Neil asked the doctor though his eyes were directed at Rachel. Rachel seemed to understand the look and turned to Dr. Ibori with a look of her own. The doctor looked at Rachel and then at Neil, not understanding until she looked at the boy.

“In usual situations, only miss Lee would be able to accompany him,” Eli tensed beside Neil.  _ “But,  _ we can make an exception, although only one of you can go.”

“I can go,” Andrew suddenly said and turned towards Neil, who was not surprised by Andrew volunteering to go with Eli. “I think there’s a gift shop somewhere down in the lobby, you and Ava could go and buy something for both of them. What do you think?” Andrew asked the last question to the kids.

“Sure,” they said at the same time, Eli with a grateful smile and Ava with an excited one.

“Great, the exams won’t take too long, probably an hour, at most an hour and a half. Sadie here will help you to the exam room.”

Neil got off the bed, giving Eli a reassuring smile, and helped Ava off the bed whilst Andrew helped Sadie with the railings and cables. Neil noted that the boy was shaking lightly, but as soon as Andrew reached his side and placed a hand on the railing, right beside Eli's arm, the boy took a deep breath and his shaking lessened.

“The gift shop is in the lobby of the first floor, on the right. There should be a sign,” Rachel said, and then she reached for her bag, pulling out a card and giving it to Neil. “Here’s my number, call me if you need anything. ” With that she left, leaving Neil and Ava alone in the room.

“Gift shop?” Neil hinted, turning to Ava.

“Gift shop!” She exclaimed excitedly.

Neil took the excited girl’s hand and let her pull him outside the door and through the quiet hallways, Neil noticed her steps had a little bounce on them and couldn’t help but smile at the small girl. Everything changed when they rounded the corner and they entered the waiting area, where many family members were speaking loudly among themselves. As soon as some people turned their heads towards the pair, Ava held Neil’s hand tighter and hid against his leg.

Not knowing what to do, Neil hurried to get out of the room as fast as he could, gently pulling Ava with him. Once they were out from the waiting area and in a much silent hallway, Ava detached herself from Neil’s leg and the excited smile returned to her face as if nothing had happened mere seconds ago. Thankfully, there was no one on the elevator when it reached them and no one entered on their way down.

As they rounded the corner, Neil’s eyes immediately flew to a young man wearing a red flannel shirt, black jeans, and white shoes, he recognized him immediately. Ryder Chen, a young sports reporter that was always looking for new content about Neil and Andrew. Neil couldn’t help but wonder if the man had placed a chip on him or Andrew to keep track of their every movement.

_ If Ryder was able to place a tracking chip on us,  _ Neil’s paranoiac mind began,  _ anyone from my father’s circle could have placed a chip too. Were they tracking my every movement? What if there’s someone on the outside waiting for the perfect moment to strike and kill me? I didn’t know many of my father’s people and I don’t know how many could he have been recruited in those years I was on the run, the FBI must have missed someone and that person must hate him so much that he’s just waiting, waiting for a moment to kill me, or Andrew, or anyone I care about, like the foxes. What makes me so sure that everyone I love is safe? There’s no way that- _

“Neil?” A tiny voice passed through his panicked mind. Remembering where he was, he turned to the voice he now recognized as Ava. 

“Sorry, got lost inside my brain there.” He took a deep breath to calm his racing heart, and then another. 

_ Nathan is dead, his inner circle is in prison, those who escaped knew not to mess with us or they would receive the same fate one of their ex-partners had when he tried to attack us. There is no way Ryder could have known we are here, he is probably visiting a family member, who coincidentally, is staying at this same hospital. Andrew is safe, I am safe, I'm the starting striker of the Tornadoes. I’m at the hospital with Andrew, Ava, and Eli, we are safe.  _

“It’s okay, I also get lost there sometimes. Why did we stop?” She added, oblivious to the many questions in Neil’s mind.

“You know how Andrew and I play Exy and we appear on TV?” The girls nodded. “Well, because of that, many reporters are always asking us questions and there is one of them at the lobby right now, and I don’t want him to know I’m here, or many others will come and there will be chaos.”

Ava hummed and scrunched her face, and lifted her hand to her face, tapping her pointer finger against her lips, occasionally glancing at Neil and the general direction of where Ryder was. Neil had to admit Ava looked cute. Since when did he describe things as  _ cute?  _ He hasn’t been with the kids for a whole day and they are already turning him soft.

“Oh, I know!” Ava chirped after a few seconds. 

The girl lifted her arms in the universal sign of ‘pick me up’ and Neil obliged, resting her weight against his hip. Ava once again lifted her hands, this time to his face, and stopped just before actually touching his skin. To be completely honest, Neil was a bit surprised at how the girl knew about asking before touching and a bit confused at what the girl might be up to, so he nodded. Immediately, the girl’s hand made contact with his skin, and he felt her little hands squishing his face.

“Now no one will be able to tell it’s you!”

Neil thought about it, no one would actually expect the son of the Butcher of Baltimore Neil Josten to be carefully carrying a young child at a hospital, much less the girl to be smiling at him. People would think that if he ever did carry a child it was probable that he was kidnapping the child or torturing them. It was a great plan, even though he knew that Ava hadn't thought as he had, she was just being an innocent -almost- six-year-old trying to help him.

“You’re really smart, you know that? I would've never thought of this,” Neil praises and watches as a shy smile forms on the girl's face as her cheeks turn pink.

They pass Ryder on their way, but the young man just looks at them for a second before turning his gaze again to the magazine he had in his hands. Neil could feel Ava tracing the scars on his cheek absentmindedly, and he thought he ought to feel uncomfortable about it, he’d never let anyone other than Andrew touch them after the burns healed. Yet, feeling the girl’s fingers trace the scars, he didn’t feel opposed to it, but rather comfortable with it.

It didn’t take them much longer to get to the gift shop, which was gigantic and the most colorful place in the lobby, the walls were covered with long wooden planks, and the walls that weren’t filled with these wooden planks were painted to resemble trees. Ava was shocked still in Neil’s arms and it wasn’t until they entered the store that she was able to move again. She wiggled in Neil’s arms for him to put her down, and the second her feet touched the floor, she was jumping and going through the corridors excitedly.

The gift shop was separated into sectors, one held sweets and snacks, the other held family board games, and the last one was filled with stuffed animals. Ava rushed to the stuffed animals' sector and began touching all of the stuffies when suddenly, she stopped abruptly in front of the giant stuffed animals with an awed expression on her face. He was about to ask her if she wanted one of those, but she ducked her head and went for one of the smaller stuffed bears.

“This one?” she asked shyly as if the decision for  _ her  _ stuffed animal was  _ his  _ decision. Neil realized that probably she had never been able to get something she truly wanted.

“You sure you want that one? We could get one of the bigger ones.” Neil hinted, letting her decide whether she wanted the stuffed bear on her hands, or get the bigger one, Neil had seen her look at them with heart eyes.

“Can I get one of the big ones?” Ava’s eyes glimmered.

“Of course, you could even get one of those gigantic ones.”

“Really?” Ava squealed.

“Really.” Neil nodded with a smile for emphasis and at this, Ava jumped, hurriedly leaving the small stuffed bear where she had taken it from, and went for the shelf where the gigantic stuffed animals were with an open smile on her lips.

“Can you help me up?” Ava asked with puppy eyes and Neil just couldn’t say no. Neil lifted her and walked towards the stuffed animals. He was quite surprised by how the girl seemed to search for a specific animal given the fact that she looked at every animal before shaking her head to herself and continue looking. 

It had taken them a while to find a stuffed animal for each child. At first, Ava had thought they would share the stuffed animal so she had been searching for an animal they had both claimed it was a cool animal, but when Neil told her she could choose two stuffed animals, one for her and one for Eli, she placed the lion stuffed animal she had chosen back in the shelf and continued her search.

After two minutes of searching, Ava grinned widely when she found a stuffed animal of Eli’s favorite animal, a tiger, and before placing it on the cart besides Neil, she whispered something in the Tiger’s ear and kissed its cheek. 

“I told the tiger not to worry, we will be its new family!” She told Neil after seeing his confused look before turning back to find her stuffed animal.

Neil couldn’t believe the girl in his arms, not even six hours ago she had run to the court, alone and tear-eyed after her step-father physically abused her brother, and now because of that, they were at the hospital. Yet here she was, smiling and worrying about the feelings of a stuffed tiger and ‘reassuring’ it that  _ they  _ would be its family. This was the moment Neil realized he didn’t want to fail Ava.

A loud gasp from Ava took Neil out of his thoughts and into a small panic, afraid that someone had come for him and therefore hurt the girl. Whipping his head to Ava he could finally breathe easier although a hint of worry stayed in his chest when he saw the excited face on Ava’s face. He was going to ask if everything was alright when she leaned further into the shelf and took one of the stuffed animals on the back and when Neil saw which animal it was, he couldn’t help but grin.

“A fox!” She exclaimed as she pulled a fox stuffed animal, half her size, and buried her face into it. “It’s so fluffy!” 

“You like foxes?” Neil asked, unable to help himself.

“They are my favorite animals,” she turned towards Neil as he walked towards the snack aisle. “Did you know that foxes have whiskers on their legs and face, which helps them navigate?”

Ava kept telling him interesting facts while he chose snacks for the rest of the day. Whenever she got quiet as if realizing she had been ranting at him, he would urge her on with other facts he knew about foxes, they  _ were  _ his favorite animals too.

Neil walked to the register and paid for the things with his and Andrew's shared card. He did own have a personal credit card, but he still had issues in spending his own money unless it was for groceries or medicine. Mary had taught him to never waste money on things that didn't serve for their survival. He had tried many times to use his credit card for anything other than that, but it had only made him have a panic attack on the parking lot of McDonald's. In the end, he and Andrew agreed that they would use his credit card for groceries and medicine, Andrew's for emergencies and they would share another one that linked with Andrew's bank account for goodies.

On their way back to the hospital room, Ava was far more interested in her fox than in the number of people that had accumulated in the waiting room. Once back at Eli's room, he placed her on the floor, giving her the bag that had Eli's tiger and she immediately ran to the couch and began playing with both toys. 

**You**

_ How's it going? _

**Drew**

He almost had a panic attack when he was told to change out of his clothes so he changed in the bathroom. I’m thinking scars, we both saw how Chris treated him today. 

**You**

Shit.

I also agree with the scars, remember my freshman year?

**Drew**

How could I not?

**You**

Yeah...

Anything else?

**Drew**

He was anxious during the x-rays, but he relaxed after I started talking about Exy. 

He’s a Junkie, just like you. We’ll be back in thirty minutes, they are almost done here.

What about you two?

**You**

It went well, found two stuffed animals, and before you say anything, I had no say in Ava’s decision. Besides that, I bought us some snacks.

**Drew**

What did you do this time…

**You**

Nothing! I swear.

Neil could practically see Andrew’s eye roll in his mind. With a chuckle, he sat on the couch beside Ava, as she played, opening his google-chrome app and searching for the process of fostering. 

To Neil’s surprise, about twenty minutes later, there was a knock on the door before it was open and from it, Eli’s bed came into view. Neil noticed Eli looked a bit paler like he had been after his first x-ray. Sadie seemed to know this as well given that she hurriedly placed the hospital bed in place and did a quick check on Eli before leaving the room with a smile. Neil turned to look at Andrew in a silent conversation.

_ What’s wrong with him? _

_ The tomography was too much, it had to be cut off early. _

_ Is he going to have to try again later? _

_ No, the last thing they needed was a scan of his head but he already did it. _

Neil nodded and turned towards Ava, who looked at her brother warily. He crunched down on her level and whispered into her ear. Immediately the girl perked up and ran towards the couch she had been sitting in and grabbed the tiger stuffies.

“Eli, look! Neil and I bought you a tiger stuffie!” Ava exclaimed as she walked towards her older brother, lifting the tiger for him. The boy’s cheeks flushed but it didn’t stop him from holding the stuffed animal to his chest and squeezing it.

“These are really big, huh? What animal did you get, bug?” Ava gasped and ran for her fox stuffie.

“A fox!” 

Andrew turns to look at Neil with slightly narrowed eyes -if Neil didn’t know Andrew as he did, he wouldn’t have noticed it- and a questioning look.

_ It wasn’t me.  _ Neil tries to communicate with a shrug, Andrew doesn’t seem to completely believe him but he turns his head back around.

“Oh, didn’t think they’d have fox stuffies. Did you give him a name?” Ava nods excitedly. 

“His name is Mister Whiskers!” 

“I like that name, what about my tiger?”

“Mx Stripes!” 

“Why 'Mx'?” Neil asked, he knew that it was a gender-neutral title, he didn’t have an issue with this, hell, he had nonbinary friends, he was just curious as to why Mx Stripes was nonbinary.

“Tigers’ genders are really hard to know because female and male tigers are really similar in looks so we can’t guess their gender. What if we get it wrong?! So their name can be Mx Stripes!” Ava explained and Neil couldn’t believe how smart and caring Ava was.

“Mx Stripes is a really good name Ava, I bet they like it very much.” 

Ava looked proud of herself and smiled at her brother before turning to look at Neil and Andrew closely. Eli snorted in the background, shaking his head as Ava kept analyzing the two grown men. Neither of them knew what was going on but they learned pretty quickly to just let her analyze them and later on she would talk.

“Having trouble there bug?” Eli spoke up after a minute, a bit of a mocking tone could be heard.

“Yeah,” she admitted, although she never took her gaze away from them. “I think Neil could be a fox, like me, but I don’t know which animal Andrew would be.”

“What?” Neil and Andrew ask at the same time, turning to look at an unimpressed Eli.

“She likes to identify people into animals. She once read about that when I took her with me to the library so I could study and since then she does it to her friends.”

“Eli is a tiger, he looks intimidating but that’s because he makes others think he has his life’s together and couldn’t care less of haters, although it's not always true. He’s also a natural leader.”

“He- oh yeah!” Eli exclaimed and high-fived Ava.

“So you are a fox?” Neil inquired.

“Yep!” She replied, popping the ‘p’. “I’m really shy and it takes time for me to warm up to people. I don’t like crowded spaces and once someone gets to know me, I’m an amazing person...or that’s what it said where I read it.” She added as she shrugged shyly, looking at her lap, fidgeting with Mr. Whiskers’s whiskers. 

“I agree with you, miss Ava, you are a fox.” Ava’s cheeks flushed at what Neil said and a tiny smile crept up her face.

“Me too, but I don’t think I agree that Neil is a fox,” Andrew deadpanned.

“ _ Excuse me?!  _ I’m  _ hurt ‘ _ Drew,” Neil said, faking a pained expression and bringing his hand to his chest as if he had been shot there. The kids giggled behind him, for the first time not caring if Andrew and Neil could hear them, and a small smile grew on both of the adults’ faces.

“A porcupine!” Ava burst out. “Andrew’s a porcupine.”

“A porcupine?” Andrew asked, curiously.

“Yeah! Porcupines have spikes on the outside so that no one can harm them but their inside is soft, their spines are for defense and they will only use them if they feel threatened to keep their soft side safe. Porcupines also enjoy being alone except for those they trust and they are very intelligent!” Ava finished with a proud smile and Neil could not deny that Andrew  _ really was a porcupine. _

“Yeah, he’s a porcupine.”

  
  


They spent the rest of the afternoon either talking, sitting in comfortable silence, or listening to the two children play together with their stuffed animals (although Eli had been a bit embarrassed with the last one but still he would move Mx. Stripes and talk for them in the exact moments for Ava). 

Rachel would come by and check on them every hour given that it was her job to ensure the children’s safety. She would knock on the door and wait for Eli’s call to come in before entering, asked if they needed anything and when they would answer her that no, they were good, she would smile and leave. At six in the evening, they had dinner, all of them sitting on Eli’s bed, the TV on, yet no one was paying attention to it, more interested in talking about how awful hospital food tasted.

“-It tastes like it was just taken from the bottom of the pot and they had to add water for it to  _ look  _ nice but it didn’t work so they added a few chunks of other foo-” Eli was cut off by Rachel’s knock, he called her in and as soon as she entered, they knew something was wrong. Rachel had a gloomy expression with a tinge of frustration in her eyes. Neil knew that look, and that look did not bring good news.

“I hate to have to say this,” she closed her eyes and let out a sigh before turning to look at the four of them with an apologetic expression. “Due to hospital rules, Neil and Andrew will have to leave once visitation hours are over. I swear I tried to talk to them but they kept saying that if they let them stay, they would be infracting a law and lawyers would have to be called, blah, blah, blah.”

Neil couldn’t focus on his own anxiety, much too worried about Eli’s abandonment issues and therefore separation anxiety. As soon as she told them that they wouldn’t be staying, Eli had started trembling. Neil knew he was on the verge of an anxiety attack so he quickly made up his mind and turned to Rachel.

“How much time do we have before visitation hours are over?” Neil asked.

“They are over in about forty-five minutes, why?” 

“Can’t they just let us stay until they fall asleep?” Andrew deadpanned, clearly understanding what Neil was saying. They both turned towards Rachel and watched as the realization hit her and she mouthed an ‘oh’.

“I can try, give me twenty minutes and I’ll be back with the answer,” she sent them a small smile before leaving them.

They spent the following twenty minutes in tense silence, Eli clutched on Mx. Stripes and unconsciously leaned into Neil, his body still shaking a little, whilst Ava once again fidgeted with Andrew’s finger restlessly. No one said anything, just acknowledged the others’ presence. Their wait felt like it was endless as if they had been waiting for years. Neil thanked whatever God was up there when Rachel’s knock came and thanked it again when he saw her small smile.

“It took a ton of coaxing, but they permitted you guys to stay here until eight pm. After that, you could stay in the waiting room or you could come back when visitation hours begin once again at ten am. Don’t worry about them, I’ll be by their side and if you feel like that’s not enough, you could leave me your phone number and I’ll be calling you if anything happens,” Rachel assured. Neil nodded in understanding and walked towards her to add his and Andrew’s number on her phone, she thanked him and left them alone once again.

By the time they had thirty minutes before their extra visitation hours were over, they began positioning the children so they could sleep, arranging them so they could share the bed without disturbing the other, accommodating the pillows and once both kids laid on the bed, they covered them with the sheets up to their chin. 

Eli was still anxious and would search for both grown men whenever one of them left his sight for more than a minute. Neither child was able to fall asleep quickly, Ava’s restlessness wouldn’t let her stay still for more than a minute before tossing around repeatedly and Eli’s anxiety was also making him restless. So Neil took a decision and began speaking.

“You two want to know about the time Andrew and I played against each other for the first time and led to our widely known rivalry?” Neil asked, his voice a bit softer than usual, and received two nods and a groan from Andrew that the other three deliberately decided to ignore.

“Well, it all started in my first year as a pro-player,” Neil begins. “I was with the Wildcats and Andrew with the Gators. Mid-season we had our first game together and by that time it had been a month or two since we hadn’t seen each other so when we got in court we began yelling at each other in Russian. It would be things like, ‘What are we eating for dinner?’or ‘You took a sweatshirt last time you were here, didn’t you?’ you get the idea. Now, given our pasts and how we act in public, everyone thought we were fighting or telling the other to fuck off and the fact that we would throw the middle finger at each other didn’t help too. 

“Andrew, being the jerk he is, closed the goal on me, he wouldn’t let me score against him, and every time he did, I would call him an idiot. The Gators won that game and Andrew was placed in PR duty given that everyone wanted to know what happened and when he was asked what he thought of me he-”

“I told them that I hated him, and it’s true.” Andrew cut Neil off. Neil rolled his eyes and smiled lovingly at Andrew before continuing the story.

“I also didn’t help, the same reporters came to me and asked what did I feel about his statement, I just replied, and I quote, ‘who the fuck cares about what the asshole thinks about me', and thus, our rivalry began. 

"We couldn’t care less about what people thought about our relationship so we let the assumptions that we hated each other continue. Reporters and fans began looking for more information about our supposed rivalry, all of them forgetting about the four years we had to live, train and sleep together, but the press didn’t care, they got thousands of views with every little scrap of information they got.” Neil turned to the kids and smiled when he noticed their eyelids starting to drop.

“Some of our friends don’t help much either,” he continued. “Nicky, Andrew’s cousin, likes and retweets whatever tweet he sees about the rivalry adding commentary here and there, but if anyone comes to them and asks about more information, they all tell the reporters to fuck off. 

“Nowadays the rivalry is still a thing, but we don’t pour more information, whenever they ask us something, we dodge it easily or vaguely reply, but people are still interested about it, even more now since we will be playing in the same team again and no one knows what will happen next. On our team, only three people know about us, the coach, our PR manager, and Haylee, a friend of ours, but the others can tell that the rivalry is not real.” When he looked back to the bed, both kids were fast asleep, their breathing deep and even. 

Neil and Andrew stayed quietly in the room for another five minutes to make sure the kids would stay asleep before standing up and walking to the door. Standing with her phone in hand outside the door was Rachel, she looked up when they came out with a smile.

“They sleeping?” She asked, the two men nodded at her. “Okay, great. As I said before, I will be calling you if anything happens and tomorrow you can come once visitation hours start at ten am.”

“Thank you,” Neil said.

“No problem,” Rachel replied as she went inside the room, carefully closing the door to not make a sound.

Their ride back home was silent, Neil felt as if he had left something back at the hospital and immediately knew it was the children. It was kind of crazy, they hadn’t spent twenty-four full hours with them but they had still made their way to their hearts faster than anyone else had ever been able to, there was something about them that clicked immediately with them and now that they had to leave them behind, it was even more noticeable.

Once they got home, they took a quick shower together and sat beside the other once they were done changing. 

“We should call Renee,” Neil told Andrew after five minutes of silence, just for Andrew to show him his phone that was ringing Renee. After the fourth ring, the phone was answered.

“Hello Andrew, is everything ok?” Came her soft and calm voice from the phone.

“Are you alone?” Andrew replied.

“Yes, Allison had to run a few errands on one of her stores, why?” 

“We need your help,” Neil faltered.

“Oh, hello Neil, what is it you need my help?”

“We met two children that will be taken to the foster system and we wanted to apply to foster them, we were thinking you and your mom could help us in the process?” 

“Oh, of course, we will help you. Would you like me to add my mom to the call so we can talk about this?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“No problem Neil.” 

Renee was quick to have her mom on the call, Neil respected the woman, she had barged into Evermore and taken Jean out of there not entirely worried about what was going on there and if she would be in danger. No, that woman barged in, threatened Tetsuji, and got Jean out of there as if it was something she did every day. So when she asked to know the story of the children, Neil and Andrew shared an equal look and told them everything they knew of the children.

“All right then,” began Stephanie. “I say we start arranging and planning everything so we can take them out of the system as soon as possible.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact, writing this chapter was hell and yet I wrote more that 5k words :"D.
> 
> Anyways, I don't know if I'll be able to post on time next week, I'm going to enter the exam week and I still haven't written next chapter.
> 
> I want to thank y'all for reading this and commenting every now and then, I know I am not the best fanfic writer out there but I'm slowly getting better, a little over a year ago I could not write more than 1k words for a single chapter and yet now I wrote 5k! Thanks for the support <3


	7. Month 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Month 1 of the adoption process: dropping the children to their new foster home, first meeting for the fostering orientation, weekly visit, and receiving news.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh gosh, I just finished writing this chapter so there might be a few mistakes, I'll come back and edit later but I had to upload a new one today. On week two, I used data from the internet and it made me sad yk. Anyways, hope you like this chapter, not for the first time, thank you all for the support you have given this fanfic and I sure hope you enjoy your stay :)))
> 
> Tw: Mentions of anxiety, references to both Neil’s and Andrew’s past, mentions of punishment and abuse, detailed facts about foster care, mentions of all types of abuse, crying, nightmares, references and mentions of past child abuse, mentions of cancer (stage 3 melanoma), mentions of Cass.
> 
> Edit: Just changed a few things, I don't think its necessary to re-read.

**January 6th, week 1.**

The test came back a day later, Dr. Ibori had said that nothing alarming showed up in the tests, and Eli’s headache settled after he slept for eight hours, therefore, he was discharged that same day. Neil and Andrew helped with the process of discharging Eli whilst Rachel signed some paperwork to finalize some stuff. 

It was clear both children were anxious about what was going to happen next. The most noticeable things were their body language. Their faces were paler than ever; They were restless, unable to stay still for more than five minutes -Ava kept playing with her fingers and Eli couldn’t stop biting his nails, even if every time he realized what he was doing he would wipe his hands, clench them into fists, and place them on his lap-; Ava was getting clingier to them, reaching for either men hands whenever they were close enough. 

There was no doubt on whether Neil and Andrew would accompany them and help them settle in the foster home. Therefore, once Eli was free to go, both Neil and Andrew got onto the Maserati and followed Rachel’s car to their first foster home. To say it had taken a while to get the children into Rachel’s car was an understatement.

They met with the foster parents thirty minutes after leaving the hospital, Mr. and Mrs. Mercer. They were a white middle-aged marriage with no children of their own with a two-floored house with both a backyard and a front yard. It looked like a cozy and welcoming house on the outside.

Judging from Andrew’s reaction as they stepped into the house, it wouldn’t be a bad one for the kids, but the kids didn’t know this, both Ava and Eli had rushed to walk besides Andrew and Neil as they walked through the house, obviously anxious at this change. The inside of the house looked like one from a magazine. It was an open plan designed, its walls were porcelain white, the floor was covered by a black rug. In the living room, a window replaced a whole wall and the backyard could be seen, which was well kept. The furniture was either black or white, a grey one here and there, and the kitchen had modernized electronics. 

“Would you like a tour of the house?” Mrs. Mercer asked in a high-pitched voice as if she were talking to babies. 

“Thank you, ma’am,” Eli replied respectfully with a nod.

And so the tour began. Mrs. Mercer led them through the many rooms, all of which had the same black and white design, and the floor titles shined in every room. Neil had an internal dialogue about why would these people want to foster, did they realize how messy children could be? Which led to more questions. Would the Mercer’s punish the children if they didn’t keep their rooms clean? Would they punish the children for dripping a drop of food onto their porcelain white dining table? Would the children live here without the fear of being punished and therefore they would not enjoy their freedom from Chris?

_The Mercers are good,_ Neil reminded himself knowing that if they weren’t Andrew would not let the children take a single step inside the house. Years in foster care made Andrew build a second sense, one that told him if a house was safe or not in a matter of seconds. Although it had been years since he had used it for the last time, Neil knew that that sense never disappeared. 

“-’m going to leave you guys alone to unpack,” Mrs. Mercer said with her annoying high-pitched voice before she left, Rachel following her.

Neil realized he had lost about half of the whole tour on his head and they were now on the second floor, standing just outside two bedrooms. Neither kid made a move to the bedrooms, just stared at them as if they were going to get punished just by entering them. Neil supposed it was about Chris and for a moment he wondered what could have happened for them to be this paralyzed. A sudden rage filled his body but he calmed himself, if he showed his anger it would only cause more distress and he could ask in the future. Neil took a step forward and as soon as his foot was inside the bedroom, it seemed to bring the children into motion. Andrew shot a look towards Neil before following the children into the room.

Calming himself before entering, Neil reminded himself that they would begin getting everything they needed to get the fostering license as soon as they helped the children settle in this house. He took a deep breath, counted to ten in German, and entered the room. 

The bedroom was not as big as Neil had imagined, it was smaller than the dorm room back at the fox tower but spacious enough to hold a twin bed, a night table, and a sliding closet. The bedroom, just like the other rooms at the house, followed the black and white theme with the white bed sheets and comforter, two pillows -one in black with a white strap and the other one completely white- both desk and night table white with a few black stripes as decoration. Neil was starting to believe that the Mercer’s did not know how messy children could be. Neil didn’t have much experience with children -especially older children since the eldest child from the foxes was four- and even _he_ knew how much mess could be made.

They spent the next thirty minutes silently settling both children in their bedrooms -going as slow as they possibly could-, and for far too soon, Rachel told them it was time for them to leave. Neil wanted to stay but if they wanted to take the children to their home soon, they had to begin the process as soon as they could.

Begrudgingly, they said their goodbyes and followed Rachel out of the house, leaving the children in the house that hopefully would keep them safe and comfortable until Neil and Andrew could take them home.

* * *

One of the first things it was talked about as they sat in Rachel’s office was that they wouldn’t be releasing a statement that they were going to apply for a foster care license. No one outside their family needed to know about this and both of them did not have to tell others unless they wanted to, and they didn’t want to. It wasn’t only for _their_ sake, but also for the children’s. If the public knew these children could have an opportunity to live with them, they would be bombarded with the press and wouldn’t have a peaceful time in public. So no, they wouldn’t say a thing about the children unless the children told them they could. They were old enough to make that decision for themselves.

The only issue with this, the orientation couldn’t be private. Rachel had had to go through all of her contacts to find somewhere mildly private where she could send some NDA’s so no one talked about this. Luckily, Rachel found one of these groups where people on the public radar went when they wanted to apply for foster care. It was almost perfect, it was only for selected people and these people were told to sign NDA’s even before entering the room. It was two hours away and just outside the city, but that didn’t matter, both Neil and Andrew did, in fact, enjoyed car rides. No, the issue was that getting the certification would take eight weeks, having to go there two times a week.

It was more time than they had planned but it was all worth it.

**January 14th, week 2**

Neil and Andrew sat side by side inside the foster care center for the afternoon orientation class. There were five other couples with them, some of which Neil recognized from the times he flickered through the channels of the television, but even then, people were surprised to see them enter and sit together, their hands interlocked the whole time. Thankfully no one commented on it and they went back to waiting for their counselors to arrive.

While waiting for their counselors, Neil went to one of his oldest habits when in a new surroundings, he assessed the room. The room was as big as the changing room back at the stadium, its walls were covered by colorful handprints of varying colors and sizes, each one labeled with names written by children. The orange foldable chairs faced a small stage in the front of the room, big enough for at most three people there. There was a big window towards the back of the room and just beside it was the emergency exit.

Just before Neil had the time to plan an escape route, two counselors entered the room and asked for everyone to settle down. 

“Hello, my name is Melissa, but you can call me Meli.” The youngest one of the two introduced herself. She wore a turquoise hijab and a gray sweater that made her gray eyes pop out. Neil had a fair amount of trouble in the past to know how to identify the fire in the eyes of someone who had their fair share of troubling events, and Meli had that fire.

“And I am Erika. We are so happy to see how many of you are here,” the woman behind Erika introduced herself. Her blond hair was tied up in a tight bun, not a single piece of hair out of the palace. Contrary to Meli, she threw off bad air. Her smile was fake and she passed each and every one of them as if she already knew they were going to fail. When her eyes got to Neil, her smile faltered as well as her eyes narrowed. 

It made Neil feel a little uncomfortable, people usually judged or assumed things about him for his scars, and that was if they didn’t know about his father. There were pros to being known, such as people knowing vague facts about his childhood, and thanks to that not many people asked about the scars. But, there still were people that assumed they were in a position where they could ask him questions and he would respond to them. He had a feeling Erika would be one of these people.

“I want to ask you something, how many kids do you think the system currently holds?” Erika asked in her scratchy voice.

“200,000?” A man guessed on the front of the room.

“There are currently more than half a million children in foster care.” Meli began, gaining a whistle, from somewhere at Neil’s right, and a sudden stiffness from Andrew. “More than 250,000 children are placed into foster care annually and only 13.1% out of all the children in the system are adopted. The system is overloaded and there is no space for more children.”

“There must be transparency with the children given that in most of these cases, it usually involves mental, physical, and/or emotional abuse or extreme negligence towards the child outside the system and sometimes even inside the system. We, as counselors, try to approve only those that have the capacities and are stable enough to deal with these children, but some counselors do not share these thoughts and will approve whoever says they want to foster.” Erika continued, and Neil couldn’t help but slightly turn towards Andrew as his hold on Neil’s hand had tightened. Surprisingly, Andrew’s eyes weren’t glossed over, indicating that he was remembering. Instead, they were focused and decided. Neil squeezed Andrew’s head and turned towards the two women.

“These cases do not happen often but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. For this, we will be teaching you how to deal with this situation and how to help these children. Some of these children will usually languish in the system. Here, we will take you through an eight-week foster care course, so you can get your certification.”

“This is not going to be easy, these kids will test your will, put a strain on your relationship, and push buttons you didn’t even know you had.”

“You will ask yourself why you decided to do this, but I’m telling you from experience, having someone that cares for you after some terrible homes is something magical.”

**January 25th, week 3.**

It was three weeks since they had left the children with the Mercers and just as they had promised, they visited once a week. With Exy practices from seven am to four pm with an hour-long lunch break at noon, it allowed arriving at the Mercer’s at five and spend time with them until dinner every Friday. Although given that they had a game that Friday, they decided to move the date for the day before. 

Neil didn’t believe in destiny, but if he did, he would have said that it had been destiny’s doing that they were there that day.

Neil and Andrew arrived at exactly five pm at the Mercer’s house and as they knocked on the door and were opened by Mrs. Mercer, they already knew something was wrong. When they visited last time, they were greeted by an excited five-year-old girl and a totally not so excited twelve years old -he totally was but he was almost a teen, teens couldn’t get excited about seeing adults...even if they were two of the most famous exy players- as soon as they got into the house. This time though, there was complete silence in the house.

“Where are they?” Neil asked Mrs. Mercer.

“Oh! They are in their rooms, little Ava had a tummy ache earlier today so she stayed in her bedroom.” Yeah, no, that was a lie although Neil guessed Mrs. Mercer didn’t know it was a lie, he knew, and he knew Ava was not having a good day.

Thanking her, they entered the house and went up the stairs towards the children’s room. Hearing the soft sniffles, muffled by the door coming from Ava, had Neil wanting to just open the door and kill whoever dared to hurt the children. Andrew seemed to feel the same judging by the step he gave towards the door, but instead of bargaining, he took a deep breath and knocked on the door. At the sound of the knock, Ava whimpered and a shuffling noise was heard before the door was opened by a weary-looking Eli. When he saw who they were, the weary expression morphed into a relieved one and ushered them inside, closing the door behind them. Neil noticed the door didn’t have a lock on it.

Neil also noticed the way Ava was hiding from them, she laid curled on herself on the furthest corner of the bed, the bedsheets pulled over herself and the sniffling sounds started to sound as if she were holding back her tears.

“Hey bug,” Eli whispered, slowly approaching Ava’s shivering form. “Why don’t you pull that sheet away from your head and see who came?” 

“No,” Ava crooked out although Neil could hear a tinge of curiosity in her tone.

“Oh well, I guess Neil and Andrew will have to leave.” Eli didn’t even finish what he was saying before Ava threw the sheets away when the boy said their names. 

“Hey, can we sit with you?” Neil asked with the softest voice he could muster, which wasn’t much, but it still seemed to calm Ava momentarily. Ava nodded and they approached her bed.

When they sat down, Ava looked longingly at Neil’s chest, still sniffling and the latter perked up on what she needed at the moment. He slightly opened his arms and almost immediately, they were full of a now sobbing five-year-old girl, her face tucked tightly on the crook of his neck. Instinctively, -from where he got it, Neil didn’t know- Neil rubbed her back in hopes that it would comfort her. 

It took a while, but after about half an hour, the sobs turned into occasional sniffles and she took her face out of Neil’s neck and turned to look at Andrew. Without a prompt, Andrew gave his hand to Ava, and she began playing with his fingers. When Neil momentarily stopped rubbing her back, she tensed and let out a small whimper, prompting him to continue.

Ava sought comfort in both of them and Neil couldn’t help but think of his childhood. Neil could vaguely remember young Nathaniel seeking comfort from Mary when Nathan hurt him that first time at six. He had wanted her to hug him real tight and kiss his bump, but instead, she yelled at him for being a baby and left him on his own accord. Neil had never received this type of comfort until years later with Andrew, and even then, it had taken them a long time to get to that point.

For the next hour, Neil, Andrew, and Eli talked about school, and how Eli wanted to try out for the Exy team -Neil was ecstatic, Andrew rolled his eyes half-heartedly- the following week. It was small talk and in any other circumstances, Neil would’ve just ignored the person and/or left the room, but with Eli it was exciting. Watching the boy’s face light up when he was told something about exy or the way he rambled when he told the latest gossip from his classroom. 

It was maybe an hour later that Neil felt Ava fall asleep on his shoulder that the air in the room grew a bit tense. Neil knew Eli was worried about his baby sister and could tell he was a bit upset he hadn’t been able to comfort her. Neil didn’t want to pry, but he wanted to know what had upset her this much. Apparently, Eli could read minds because when he spoke next responded to his question.

“Last night during dinner, Ava accidentally stained the white chairs and Mrs. Mercer got annoyed with her. She didn’t hit Ava or yelled at her,” he added, probably noticing the tension that built-in both men's shoulders. “She just told her to be more careful next time but it still hit Ava pretty hard. She woke me up at 4 am and judging by how she was nonverbal, how she was shaking, and the redness on her eyes, it had been at least an hour since she had woken up. No matter how much I tried, she wouldn’t go back to sleep and so I had to tell her stories until we were supposed to wake up so she couldn’t go back to her memories.

“I don’t know what happened at school, but when we came back, she choked out her stomach hurt and rushed here. I had to stay with the Mercers for half an hour so they wouldn’t grow suspicious before coming here. When I did come here she was hiding and crying, I tried to calm her down, but I couldn’t” Eli finished with a whisper, and judging by the tone he used, he was disappointed in himself.

“Maybe you couldn’t calm her down right now, but who did she seek at 4 am after a nightmare? Maybe it was not as soon as she woke up, but she came to _you_ . And what did you do? Did you get angry at her? Threw her outside? Ignore her? No. You stayed up and told her stories so she wouldn’t get too far into her head. You came here and _tried._ Sometimes, that is enough.” Andrew affirmed Eli. The latter took a breath and nodded, his shoulder slumping as he let all his tension and fear of not being enough for Ava settle down.

They had to head back home far too soon, but they knew if they wanted to come back, he had to follow the rules. They had some issues when trying to get Ava to her bed, even if she was a heavy sleeper, she would whine softly and unconsciously tighten her hold on Neil’s shirt whenever she was about to be laid on the bed. Given that she hadn’t slept the night before, they didn’t want to wake her up. It took them a couple of tries but after they exchanged Neil’s shirt with Mr. Whiskers, she laid on her bed fast asleep.

**February 3rd, week 4**

They were at practice when Coach Lewis stopped the practice and called them both. Given that every Wednesday they had to get out of practice early for their orientation, they had had to vaguely tell him about the children’s situation. Coach Lewis seemed surprised at first but he quickly composed himself and only asked if they would still be in the team, to which they had replied that yes, they would. Since they couldn’t have their phones inside the court, Coach would usually have them in a box beside him so if someone was called, he would stop practice and call the person over. There were not many people that would call either of them, much less at this time of the day, but judging by the look on Coach’s face, it was Rachel.

Indeed, when they were given the phone, it was Rachel the one calling them. It was worrying, she knew their schedule and made sure to call them after practices or arrange a meeting, for her to call them at two pm meant something happened. Anxiously, Neil accepted the phone call and changed it to speaker.

“Rachel?” 

“Neil, Andrew is there with you, right?” She sounded off, worried, like when she had told them they couldn’t stay past the visiting time back at the hospital.

“He is. What’s wrong? What’s happening?”

There was a beat of silence coming from the phone before they heard Rachel take a deep breath. “They are separating them.”

“What?! What happened to the Mercers?”

“Mr. Mercer was just diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma. They don’t want to foster any children during these circumstances and they need all the money they have for the medications. I tried everything I could so they could stay together but there are no homes that can receive more than one child at a time. It’s either this or group home and we all know how that might end up, and we are not entirely sure they would be placed in the same home.”

“Do you know if the families are good there?” Neil knew it wouldn’t matter, people could hide stuff whenever they wanted to. Cass’s was supposed to be a good home for Andrew and yet it had been there where he had broken into pieces trying to stay upright.

“The kids will stay with the Mercers for a couple more days before we move them, we have two families we think would fit with them. I checked their profiles over five times and nothing fishy seems to be going on there, both families have no children and there haven't been any complaints about them, but we never know what’s happening behind the doors. I know this wasn’t how we planned this, but if we continue the way we are, you will be taking them home in just a couple of months.”

Neil turned to Andrew and noted his face was pale, probably remembering Cass, so Neil interfered with his thoughts by standing on his viewpoint. When their gazes met, their determination could be seen, they would be taking those children from foster care and give them the life they deserved, one way or the other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Do you guys like this theme, like, telling the most important things that happened through the weeks? I feel its much easier to write and it wont make the story so long. 
> 
> Serendipity is basically meeting the children and the fostering process, then I'll be writing one shots and after that another chaptered story. If you have any prompts for these one shots, feel free to send them to my tumblr or just commenting them here.
> 
> Thank you for reading until this point and see y'all next chapter :DDD


	8. Author's Note + Character's info

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No chapter today but decided to give you some info about Eli and Ava bc I cannot not give you something.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Few Tws: Mentions of Panic and anxiety attacks, mentions of abandonment issues and separation anxiety, mentions of parental death, non verbality due to anxiety on children, mentions of trust issues, mentions of neurodivergency (ADHD).

Heyy, so quick message, there won't be a chapter today :( 

Yesterday I decided to give an extra check on today's chapter just to find out my google doc was deleted, and with it my whole progress. Now, I had shared that docs to another mail thinking that it would be like extra security but it didn't work. I tried to re write the chapter but given that it wasn't going the way I wanted it to so I lost motivation and ended up deciding not to finish it. I just didn't want to give you some floppy shit that no one would like.

But I just couldn't leave you guys with nothing so, Imma give you info on the children! (without spoilers bc many of the things I have listed for them will be shown with one-shots) (if you want to know these other facts about the children, message me from Tumblr and I will tell more facts about them + (if you want) I can you my future plans with this series.

Eli:   
  


  * Past name: Richard Elijah O’Connor  
  

  * Full name after adoption: Eli James Minyard-Josten  
  

  * Age: 12 yrs old.  
  

  * Ethnicity: Half white half latino :DDD  
  

  * Has abandonment issues (and therefore separation anxiety) since their mother disappeared after she left them with Chris for work and then died.  

  * Does not like hospitals because he was in the car crash that killed his father and saw how he died in the hospital.  
  

  * Appears to be quiet, but he isn't. He can roast you if he pleases to.  
  

  * Has anxiety and panic attacks.  
  

  * Favorite animals are Tigers.  




Ava:   
  


  * Past name: Avaleigh Paige O’Connor  

  * Full name after adoption: Ava Charlotte Minyard-Josten   

  * Age: 5 yrs old.  
  

  * Ethnicity: Half white half latino :DDD


  * When she’s too scared or just came out from a bad situation, she becomes non verbal.  
  

  * Is quiet and has trust issues.  
  

  * Is neurodivergent (ADHD)  
  

  * Can't remember her father and barely remembers her mother so she doesn't have an emotional connection to them.  
  

  * Is really smart and loves reading. Has a high level of reading capacity, she's been reading since she's three.  
  

  * Favorite animal: Fox



Note that there are some others facts about them but I didn't want to add them here just yet because it would spoil many things. Didn't actually wanted to put that Ava was Neurodivergent just yet because it hasn't been addressed as much but I have made sure to add a few signs here and there. Ava has another thing but I prefer to leave it still unsaid and wait until it is talked about in the future. Then again, if you wanna know, just message me.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry that there isn't an actual update, see you next time :)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading till the end, how are you liking it so far?
> 
> Remember that this author appreciates and loves Kudos and reading comments.
> 
> I'll try to post every ten days so be ready for next chapter!
> 
> Talk or scream at me, I'm (mostly) always available:  
> Tumblr: @thisisnotourlasthunt  
> Instagram: @thisisnotourlasthunt_


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